Heinz Arabia turned a football fan into a human billboard that roamed the World Cup premises – a witty embodiment of the brand that enabled fans to interact with Heinz Arabia through the voice of an ordinary person who was dressed in a branded red jersey and prompted fans to find him and post the proof with the hashtag #FindHeinz on Instagram. He also posted daily hints on his whereabouts to further engage with fans and gamified the experience by offering prizes to those who found him in the crown both on-ground and online via the immersive 360-degree app, VUZ.

The FIFA World Cup is a huge platform for local and international brands to connect with consumers in innovative and interactive ways. However, due to its worldwide reach and popularity, it's a cluttered space where it's challenging to stand out and disrupt, even more so if the brand is not an official sponsor. The brief was to connect Heinz Arabia with the World Cup in a smart manner – considering that they weren’t an official sponsor of the event – via a disruptive and witty execution with sufficient stature to carry the brand before, during and after the tournament.

Our goal was to make Heinz part of the football conversation, as measured through online engagement rates, media coverage and interaction between Heinz – the billboard, and fans.

Since the Heinz brand couldn’t be at the 2022 FIFA World Cup (sponsors only), there are 131,753 other people named Heinz who could. So Heinz Arabia turned to social media and found Thomas Heinz from Hamburg to attend the event on their behalf. For five days, Thomas Heinz wore his name loud and proud on a bright red QR code-enabled football jersey that incentivized other fans to interact, engage and find him using the hashtag #Findheinz in a “Where’s Wally” style competition in and around the World Cup premises.

The target audience for this campaign were Middle Eastern football fans who either attended the matches or watched them online. The approach was to create a means for the Heinz Arabia brand to engage with footballs fans and have a presence at the World Cup without actually being present or breaking FIFA’s guidelines for non-sponsors. Hence, treating the campaign like a hijack was a fitting way for Heinz Arabia to be part of the World Cup conversation in a legal yet entertaining manner and was an original way to build and establish affinity with the World Cup.

Heinz Arabia began by recruiting people named Heinz on social media by offering football fans who bear the name with a free flight and tickets to three of the most sought-after matches of the event. After finding the fitting namesake, Thomas Heinz from Hamburg, he began sharing his journey via his own Instagram account upon arriving at Doha’s airport and introduced the campaign hashtag. From there, he roamed the World Cup premises and dropped hints online on his whereabouts so that fans could find him at his next location. During the matches, he used the immersive 360-degree video app, VUZ, to engage with fans inside the stadiums. The Heinzjack lasted for a total of five days.

Thomas Heinz, our human billboard, became a memorable part of the World Cup and helped make Heinz a memorable partner to the World Cup. Unofficially. For an extremely low budget the brand was able to:

- Reach over 7 million people

- Generate 14m impressions across the various content pieces

- Deliver over 70% engagement

- Give out thousands of prizes to fans

- Earn over $450,000 worth of media coverage which equated to an unprecedented Media ROI of 45:1

A World Cup non-sponsor faces huge restrictions in how it can associate itself with the world up.

Specifically, it means:

1. Brands can’t mention, reference or include the following: “World Cup”, “FIFA World Cup”, “FIFA World Cup 2022”, “Qatar 2022”

2. No advertising or promotion which is not authorised by FIFA can take place in any venues used for the competition or controlled commercial areas within a 2km radius of the stadium. This also includes air space.

3. Brands cannot ambush the World Cup in anyway

4. Brands cannot reference any official football matches held as part of the competition

5. Brands cannot reference or use images that can be perceived to be part of the World Cup. No trophies, no stadium imagery of iconography

Nothing can be used which could be confused with official FIFA brand and competition assets.