2020 Winner
2020 Winners
Kraft Heinz
Ketchup Puzzle
Like many brands navigating this unprecedented global pandemic, Heinz Ketchup’s planned campaign aimed at bringing people together was rendered irrelevant by lockdowns and social distancing protocols.
Heinz needed to shift gears from selling ketchup to serving Canadians in their time of need. While other companies saw easy brand tie-ins commending frontline workers and healthcare practitioners, Heinz Ketchup’s quirky tone didn’t translate quite as easily. Its brand mantra - good things come to those who wait - was almost ironic in a pandemic that saw people around the world stuck at home.
Insights and Strategy
Keen to connect with Canadians and help them through these difficult times, Heinz recognized that as social distancing and self-isolation became the norm, people were seeking new ways to pass time.
The puzzle was one item that quickly re-emerged as a nostalgic hobby in media and social feeds. In fact, puzzle sales were up 215 per cent. We identified a clear opportunity for Heinz to connect this pastime with its iconically slow-pouring ketchup, providing endless entertainment to those bored at home. Enter the Heinz Ketchup Puzzle: 570 pieces, all identical Heinz red. It might just be the world’s slowest puzzle.
Execution
Originally designed as a Canadian initiative, interest in the Heinz Ketchup Puzzle spread throughout Heinz Global, with 16 countries joining in to keep the world entertained. To maximize voltage, our Canadian team designed a launch toolkit that streamlined and united global communications.
As the campaign kicked off via a social contest, this toolkit delivered a complementary three-pronged approach:
Press Release & Targeted Pitching: Tying Heinz’s iconic slow pour with the need to pass time during quarantine, we demonstrated how the Heinz Ketchup Puzzle was helping bored souls around the world. We timed a global launch of our press release to maximize results. Media ate it up. We drummed up excitement from global food, lifestyle and trade outlets.
Puzzle Mailers: Via social listening, we scoured influencer and journalist profiles to identify puzzle and Heinz Ketchup enthusiasts - from social creators to influential media personnel including Jimmy Fallon. We sent each a puzzle and challenged them to complete it, sharing the results with us.
Community Management: Mass consumer interest in the Heinz Ketchup Puzzle across all active Canadian channels (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) warranted round-the-clock community management. Teams encouraged continued dialogue between brand, consumer, and mailer recipients, while social listening tracked program sentiment globally.
Word of the Heinz Ketchup Puzzle spread quickly across global outlets. What was designed as a quick social activation earned more than 30MM earned media impressions in Canada alone and 819MM globally in under 48 hours, with over 19,000 consumers vying to get their hands on the puzzle.
Riding the wave of consumer and media interest, we quickly adapted our campaign to give the world what they wanted: more Heinz Ketchup Puzzles. In just two short weeks, we devised and launched phase two, a limited run of puzzles made available for sale across North America. Continuing our goal of helping those in need, all puzzle sales profited Food Banks Canada and Feeding America.
Our IMC team launched a custom microsite and paid social ads announcing this limited-edition sale. We reached back out to the lineup of media who had inquired about puzzle availability at launch, sent out samples, and ensured they were the first to hear the news. We also targeted news media around the world with breaking news of limited-edition sales to drive worldwide buzz.
Results and Impact
The Heinz Ketchup Puzzle was an overwhelming success:
-1.26 billion impressions globally across 17 markets
-290 Canadian stories and 51,948,612 impressions
-Top-tier coverage secured in lifestyle, broadcast, radio, online and trade outlets such as Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, CTV Your Morning, CP24, City TV National, Global News, Fox News, CBS, Mashable, Cosmopolitan, Narcity, Hypebeast, AdAge, AdWeek, Strategy.
-Phase one saw over 19,000 people around the world enter to win a Heinz Ketchup Puzzle in 48 hours.
-Phase two saw Heinz Ketchup Puzzles sell out in under 72 hours, with 100% of Canadian profits donated to Food Banks Canada.
-Canadian Heinz Ketchup sales increased by 21.1% over the 4-week period following the Heinz Ketchup Puzzle launch compared to the same period in 2019.