Looks familiar: How everyday foods play a role in Heinz's marketing

Heinz has launched a new global campaign, ‘Looks Familiar,’ based on the observation that fry boxes in restaurants worldwide share a resemblance to its Keystone logo. The campaign, running in eight markets including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the UK, Brazil, Germany, the UAE, and China, is designed to highlight the deep-seated connection between fries and Heinz Ketchup.

While the brand's platform ‘It has to be Heinz’ was launched in 2009, the campaign went global in 2023.

The campaign's central premise is that the familiar shape of a fry box offers a subtle, real-world reminder of the brand's iconic design. To further solidify this pairing, Heinz has collaborated with the global delivery app Uber Eats. This partnership includes a promotion in select markets, where consumers can receive an offer for half off a bottle of the brand’s ketchup with their fry orders, uniting the two items for fans worldwide.

The brand used an integrated marketing formula to drive the campaign, including social media.

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A legacy of marketing firsts

The American condiment brand has always portrayed itself as ‘The One’ among its competitors. Its initial campaigns were rooted in a commitment to product quality and transparency to deliberately stand out in the food industry of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Over the years, it has expanded its gastronomic empire, introducing a range of products including beans, soups, sauces, and snacks across borders. The company’s global footprint spans over 200 countries and territories.

When the food industry was rife with contamination concerns, Henry Heinz used clear glass bottles for his first product, grated horseradish, so customers could see the quality of the ingredients. This principle extended to opening factory doors to the public to reinforce hygiene and transparency.

From its adoption of celebrity endorsements to its use of social media, the brand has harnessed the power of marketing to create connections with its consumers.

By 1896, Heinz introduced the ‘57 Varieties’ slogan, which continues to feature on its products even as its portfolio expanded far beyond that number. Over the decades, its campaigns have often emphasised product quality and experience. In the mid-20th century, advertisements focusing on product experience, such as Slowest Ketchup in the West, demonstrated the product’s thickness and purity by showing how slowly it poured.

Its marketing and campaigns like ‘No one grows ketchup like’ directly appealed to the family-oriented and health-conscious audience, the segment that values quality and purity. Kantar’s UK data had recorded that Heinz products are a staple in many homes, reflecting the brand’s recognition among consumers. 

From the 1990s onwards, the brand adapted to new consumer insights and digital channels, and the rise of social media, opening doors to new ways of building relationships with audiences. Its early email newsletters in 2003 offered coupons to engage audiences, marking its entry into digital marketing.

The brand also embraced pop culture, bringing to life a fictional ad pitch from the show Mad Men with its ‘Pass the Heinz’ campaign, which used suggestion on billboards and in print rather than direct product imagery to make viewers crave it.

In 2019, Ed Sheeran’s Idea for the brand promotion showcased the singer’s love for Ketchup, creating a custom bottle design that struck a chord with fans and music enthusiasts alike. The collaboration has received 10 million views since its release in 2019, and the brand achieved $6.1 billion in net sales that year.

The 2019 annual report of the brand noted that they increasingly rely on social media and online dissemination of advertising campaigns.

Later, in 2023, the brand launched its 2009 multiyear umbrella campaign titled ‘It Has to Be Heinz’ globally. The campaign did not invent a new brand meaning but leaned into the existing one. Among these was the campaign called ‘Ketchup fraud’, which aimed to tackle the idea that restaurants refill the brand's bottles with generic ketchup.

The campaign extended beyond packaging, with an Instagram filter enabling users to check ketchup colour digitally. Rolled out across Turkey, the effort reduced counterfeit refills, with reported cases dropping by 73%, as per WPP reports. The campaign resulted in 97% able to discern real Heinz ketchup from imitations and a 24% increase in Heinz ketchup usage in street food restaurants.

This campaign engaged the brand’s digitally present younger audience, asking them to report any fraudulent cases they spot on a dedicated website, thus leveraging consumers as brand advocates.

Another initiative under the same umbrella campaign asked people to ‘draw ketchup,’ and most responded by drawing the brand's signature bottle. The brand used this to assert that when people think of ketchup, they think of Heinz.

In one of its recent global campaigns, where it launched ‘It has to Heinz’ global platform, the campaign film featured all the ways its customers use its Ketchup, from tattoos to wacky food combinations, and carrying the ketchup in purses. Built from real customer stories gathered through social media, news coverage, and word of mouth, the project highlighted the lengths to which some consumers go for the product.

While we look at the brand’s international market strategy, it is not a monolithic, one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it is a country-specific model that adapts to local tastes, economic realities, and existing brand portfolios.

Adapting globally, Acting locally

In the UK, the company responded to the rise of plant-based diets with its 'Made for Veggiez' range of vegan sauces. In Brazil, the I’m Still Here Too campaign humorously reminded consumers of forgotten sachets in refrigerators, drawing inspiration from a local Oscar-nominated film. In India, where the ketchup market was already dominated by Maggi and Kissan, Heinz pursued a different path, entering through acquisitions and later in 2022 launching localised products such as Heinz Tomato Twizt with the campaign 'Chhota Twist, Bada Dhamaka.'

The brand's campaigns have often reinforced its position in the market, including the notable 'It Has To Be' series of billboards. These advertisements, placed across cities without displaying the brand name, highlighted food items like fries, burgers, and hot dogs, staples commonly paired with ketchup, demonstrating its omnipresence and brand recognition without explicitly using its logo.

The company has maintained its relevance for over 150 years by adapting to changing tools, techniques, and consumer trends. The brand has evolved in response to cultural shifts, consumer behaviour, and local market dynamics, remaining a familiar presence in households across generations and across its diverse market spanning North America, West Europe, Asia, Africa, and other regions.