For the first time in the brand’s sesquicentennial history, Heinz has launched a unified global platform across markets, all based around the sometimes irrational affection consumers have for its products.
“It Has To Be Heinz” was created in partnership with U.S. agency Wieden+Kennedy celebrates the love that generations of people all over the world have for Heinz. It is anchored by what Kraft Heinz says is its largest media investment to date, with vignette-style spots showing the brand showing up in unconventional places due to its fans, like sneaking a bottle of ketchup into a sushi restaurant, trying to smuggle cans of baked beans into carry-on luggage and people proclaiming their love with tattoos and vanity license plates.
According to the CPG, “It Has to be Heinz” pays homage to the brand’s iconicity with a timeless platform that celebrates irrational love for the brand. The fan stories – which the brand claims are all based on true events sourced from social media, news, word of mouth and observed behaviours – will appear across TV and online video.
“As we looked to unify the brand under one global brand platform, we dove into the world of our consumers and found that they all shared one thing: the irrational lengths they go to for Heinz products,” said Diana Frost, chief growth officer, North American Zone at The Kraft Heinz Company. “As a brand obsessed with our consumers, we created ‘It Has to be Heinz’ as our love song back to them – our fans are our muses.”
The new creative platform, the company says, puts consumers at its core by identifying ownable truths about its brand and product that resonate with its consumers and how they feel.
“It Has To Be Heinz” debuts in Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Germany today. It will roll out to additional markets over the next six months.
Love for the brand and its iconography is something Kraft Heinz has tapped into numerous times in Canadian campaigns for its ketchup, led by Canadian agency Rethink. Most recently, the “It Has To Be Heinz” was used to pulling back the curtain on what it called “ketchup fraud,” calling out restaurants that put other brands of ketchup into Heinz bottles to piggyback on love for the brand.
