Heinz inspires irrational love. For those who love Heinz nothing less is acceptable.

But in the US, too many restaurants were switching to off-label ketchup and Heinz fans were having to suffer in silence. In fact, Heinz’s B2B market share had declined -5.5ppts. We needed to send restaurants a clear message - It has to be Heinz.

Instead of using the tired old B2B strategy to reach restaurants directly, we decided to tap into the power of Heinz fans. We empowered our fans to voice their demand to restaurants with a “Tip for Heinz” -a voice restaurants could not ignore.

Restaurants and food-service are critical sources of revenue and volume for Heinz. In fact, the Away-from-Home category makes up approximately 50% of Heinz’s business. But Heinz’s dominant position in the away-from-home segment was under threat. Heinz’s market share had shrunk, declining -5.5% since 2019. Private label brands were taking Heinz’s place on more restaurant tables and 35% of restaurants were now not serving Heinz. Needless to say, this was a big threat to the B2B side of our business, a substantial driver of growth for the brand.

The client challenged us to come up with an idea that would convince restaurant owners and management to order Heinz instead of private-label ketchup and reverse the negative share trend in the away from home channel.

Objectives were as follows:

Return the brand back to positive share growth: +1pp share vs. year ago.

Earn restaurant owners attention: 100M in earned impressions, new leads

We all know that the pandemic was not an easy time for the restaurants and food service industry. Those who survived had to contend with post-pandemic inflationary pressures. In fact, many restaurant operators in the US were forced to cut corners. Due to similar inflationary pressures, Heinz was forced to increase its prices including that of ketchup in the B2B category.

This led to a perfect storm of many restaurant operators switching from Heinz to private label ketchup. In fact, 35% of the restaurants in the US were now no longer serving Heinz.

This was a big let down for many Heinz fans. Heinz is the dominant brand for ketchup fans in the US, and many expect to see a Heinz bottle on the table when they sit down at a restaurant. When they don’t see it 77% are extremely disappointed. But they feel like they have to suffer in silence.

To give Heinz fans an elegant way to request their favorite ketchup, we leveraged a common custom in the US – leaving a tip. Typically, at sit-down restaurants, it’s customary to leave a 15-20% tip on top of your bill, writing in the tip amount on your receipt. We played into this everyday action by encouraging the additional $1 “Tip for Heinz” as a nudge to the restaurant to get Heinz next time.

Heinz was losing the battle to private-label brands in the food service & restaurant channel. The B2B team at Heinz needed help. But run-of-the-mill B2B tactics were proving to be ineffective, for a few reasons:

1. Restaurant owners (especially mom & pop businesses) are notoriously hard to reach

2. A recent hike in Heinz prices made the switch from private-label a tough sell for business owners who were already reeling under inflationary pressures

3. Many restaurant owners were under the impression that patrons were OK with off-label ketchup. They wouldn’t notice anyway….right?

Wrong. Heinz IS ketchup. It’s iconic. It’s unmistakable.

We believed in the power of the Heinz brand and the love Heinz fans have for the brand. So instead of appealing to businesses directly, we used the power of Heinz’s fans to convince restaurant owners that it has to be Heinz, flipping the B2B playbook entirely on its head.

Tip for Heinz is based on a simple truth: Generic ketchup just isn’t as good as Heinz. And watery, weak, not-as-good ketchup kind of wrecks your meal. You absolutely notice the difference. The numbers prove it: 4 in 5 people prefer Heinz over generic ketchup. But over a third of restaurants in the US don’t serve Heinz leaving 77% of restaurant goers ‘extremely disappointed’ when they have to put up with private-label ketchup instead of Heinz .

Insight: No one wants generic ketchup ruining their fries, but too many disappointed restaurant goers are having to suffer in silence.

What if instead of trying to convince restaurants, we used our best asset? Our fans. That was our breakthrough moment: Harness the power of Heinz fans and give them a voice - one that restaurant owners couldn’t ignore.

We aimed to rally loyal fans to demand Heinz when dining out and get restaurant operators to take notice of this demand.

We called on all Heinz fans to break their silence by giving restaurants a different kind of tip. A “Tip for Heinz” or an extra dollar in addition to their regular tip to send restaurants a not-so-subtle message- it has to be Heinz.

A cheeky but polite little call out that let restaurants know they weren’t serving the good stuff. Consumers could get reimbursed for their tip if they took a picture of their receipt and posted it to Instagram or the campaign site.

The receipt became an unlikely media vehicle and a trojan horse to reach restaurant owners. And restaurants got the message from a voice they couldn’t ignore - the voice of the people.

‘Tip for Heinz’ proved that leveraging the voice of the consumer CAN be a powerful B2B tactic.

We were successful in achieving our business objective of returning the brand to positive share growth after years of decline.The campaign contributed to +2pp of share vs. 2021 for total ketchup, beating benchmarks.

We also got the attention of restaurant owners: The campaign got covered by trade and news media alike, reaching 181MM+ impressions, far exceeding benchmarks for placements and impressions by 7% and 21% respectively.

Heinz fans showed their love on social media, with TikTok content performing above benchmarks at view rates over 90%, and Click-thru rates above average across all social platforms.

279 consumers submitted “Tips for Heinz” – the largest number of B2B leads generated at Heinz through a marketing campaign. We’ve since converted these ‘tips’ to real business wins with restaurants actually listening to consumers and switching to Heinz.