Mike Dubrick, Rethink, #1 CD. (Credit: This image was generated by MidJourney, ChatGPT-4, Dall-E 2 and Canva through prompts by Rethink).

Strategy recently published its 2024 Creative Report Card assessing the best of the best among brands, agencies and creatives in the Canadian advertising industry. To coincide with this year’s CRC, strategy has spoken with many of those who received top marks on this year’s report card, including Rethink’s Mike Dubrick, who shares insight below into the campaign work that helped Kraft Heinz rank as the top brand in this year’s CRC. For more of strategy‘s CRC coverage, read our interview with Rethink’s Aaron Starkman and Sean McDonald, as well as our deep dive into Black & Abroad’s “Black Elevation Map” campaign.

The idea: For “Vintage Drip,” Kraft Heinz capitalized on thrifting and sustainability trends by turning ketchup stains into a fashion adornment via a collection with thredUP, which showcased items from luxury and streetwear brands, including Gucci and Nike.

The backstory: “At Rethink, we practice something that we call “shallow holes,” which means we’re not going to go really deep into one idea, at first. We’re just going to scratch the surface and see if it creates excitement or energy. This allows us to create lots of ideas. “Vintage Drip,” in particular, was interesting because the request from the client was broad. The ask was: what could we do in the merch space that would be powerful, really true to the brand and different from what everyone else is doing? One of the shallow holes was that the ketchup stain itself almost already exists as merchandise for Heinz Ketchup. The problem was that it was seen as a negative to have a stain, whereas for us, it was something that we could celebrate. That became the spark that drove the whole idea forward.”

The idea: For “Heinz Slow this Ad,” the brand aired a 0.57-second ad during a NASCAR race and asked viewers to pause the Heinz Ketchup ad and play it back at a slower speed, revealing a code for a $5 discount on DoorDash orders.

The backstory: “At Rethink, we do everything we can to make sure that an idea will be impactful. At the same time, we also want to put multiple ideas out into the world over the course of a year. We’re not necessarily making one or two big bets that we put all of our money behind. With “Heinz Slow this Ad” we were less concerned about whether or not consumers were going to pay attention. Honestly, the broader concern was whether [media companies were] even going to let us do it in the first place. Our partners were excited about the idea, but that type of media buy did not exist. Our experience has been that if the idea is exciting and compelling, people will find a way to make it happen. But we definitely got the emails that said, ‘We’re concerned, we’re not sure how we can pull this off.’ A huge credit goes to our media partners.”

The idea: In response to global sightings of restaurant staff refilling Heinz bottles with generic ketchup, the brand initiated “Ketchup Fraud,” exposing this behaviour and rallying fans to insist on being served the authentic Heinz product.

The backstory: “We started by searching for evidence of this phenomenon. We ended up finding tweets where people had been caught exhibiting ketchup fraud. It was really important that it was a true insight. And the nice thing about ‘Ketchup Fraud’ is that it goes beyond a desire for ketchup, it’s a desire for Heinz. It’s truly, at its heart, a Heinz idea. Once we had evidence that this was a true behaviour, not just here, but globally, we felt we had license to go ahead. It was not an example of pointing a finger at anyone. It was really just an example of the love for the brand – that no other ketchup will do. What a gift to be able to work on a brand that is famous all over the world. A brand that is so ingrained in all of our minds that we can unlock these interesting human truths and create provocative work.”

The idea: The “Ketchup A.I.” campaign relied entirely on AI-generated visuals initiated by prompting an advanced AI image generator to draw the quintessential ketchup bottle, resulting in images that resembled Heinz.

The backstory: “We have a culture of proactivity. And we work closely with our clients to make sure that when opportunities present themselves, we’re ready to jump. And as these AI image generation tools started to appear, we wanted to put a notion that we’ve held to the test. The notion was that, when people think of ketchup, they think of Heinz. The question became, when artificial intelligence thinks of ketchup, what does it think of? We didn’t mention Heinz in the prompts. It was a legitimate test, and we weren’t sure if it was going to work. The interesting thing about “AI Ketchup” was that the tech was so new. The Midjourneys and DALL-E 2s of the world were building the plane as they were flying it. It was very experimental, very early days. That was a fingers crossed kind of moment. But our hunch proved correct. AI did deliver on what we had hoped it would. Our rule was you can’t say Heinz, you can only say ketchup, and let’s see what AI produces. Thankfully for us, it produced Heinz.”

The idea: The brand sparked the debate around the ideal way to consume Kraft Dinner – using a spoon or a fork – by launching a limited-edition “Spoon KD” that replaced the fork that has been featured on its boxes for the past 50 years.

The backstory: “If you look at a company like Kraft Heinz in general, they have some of the most famous brands in the world. Kraft Dinner, in Canada, specifically, is a cultural institution. The brief was to make sure that the brand stayed that way. Often, the best way to reassert iconic status is to find ways to prove it, rather than just saying it. “Spoon KD” is a really good example of that. We sat down with real consumers and showed them the box. And the passion that people have for whether they should eat Kraft Dinner with a fork or a spoon is a real testament to just how beloved that brand is. Once the cameras were rolling, our job was to just get out of the way and let Canadians speak for themselves. (I’m a spoon guy. I make it a little saucier, so I need to get all the sauce.)”