Heinz Ketchup Fraud

About the Work Heinz is the world’s most beloved ketchup. It’s a thick, rich sauce unlike any other, which is why we’ve long said, “It Has to be Heinz.” But as the global cost of living rises, everyone is feeling the pressures of inflation, meaning both businesses and consumers are cutting costs. In tough times, restaurants often look to cheaper alternatives of lesser quality and taste than Heinz. Our objective was to reinforce brand love for Heinz in order to show restaurants that while there are other ketchups, none can replace Heinz. Through social listening, we uncovered that restaurants had been refilling Heinz bottles with generic ketchup, and people could tell. Instead of doing what brands typically do and shying away from this behaviour, we leaned into it to rally Heinz fans to stop it. We launched Ketchup Fraud, an integrated campaign that called out restaurants refilling Heinz bottles with generic ketchup. It featured caught-in-the-act style assets and a twist on our tagline: Even when it isn’t Heinz, it has to be Heinz. Once the word was out, we turned to social and launched a website asking fans to tell us which restaurants have been committing Ketchup Fraud. Restaurants could even submit themselves anonymously on the website. We then began connecting with these restaurants and providing them with the real deal to make sure that when people saw Heinz – it was actually Heinz. By tapping into an insight that resonated with Heinz fans across the world, our campaign garnered over 502MM impressions, drove 92% positive sentiment, exceeded the social engagement rate benchmark by 128x, and brought to life hundreds of organic stories that confirmed experiences with Ketchup Fraud. With the launch of this campaign, Heinz gained 33 new accounts in under a month, equalling a total of over $250k in gross sales volume. In addition to gaining new accounts, Heinz increased sales by 8% vs the previous year and gained 0.6 points in market share vs the previous year, at a time when many were turning away from higher-priced products. Lastly, consideration scores jumped +3pts, and social engagement exceeded benchmarks by 666%.