Objective:

Heinz, a classic UK brand, aimed to increase its overall brand relevance and presence for specific products (Mayonnaise, Beanz) in social media. However, the breadth of Heinz activity meant that understanding what would resonate and should be further amplified with paid media was unclear. The brand aimed to use ‘always on’ organic social content to understand what resonated with different audiences of Heinz fans and in wider culture.

Insight:

Social media is where food gets discussed, but polished food porn doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. Instead, organic social media can help to try to embed the brand in different discussions, fandoms and audience segments, as a test bed for where the brand can further stake territory in consumer’s minds.

Approach: 

Create a content creation and learning strategy which uses organic social content to identify and reach different engaged Heinz fans, test different types of messaging and amplify the brand and products in culture. 10 different segments were identified within the Heinz fan base from ‘Hype eaters’ who follow the latest recipes on TikTok to ‘Pop Culture’ and ‘Heinz Beanztania’, fans of the role Heinz plays in British culture. Content was created weekly against these segments and monitored, seeing where engagement was created and cultural discussions entered.

Idea / Results:

As the strategic approach unfolded, we created several different key moments for the brand to capture attention including:

– Heinz Sprayonnaise: Sprayable mayonnaise was a discussion point on the popular ‘Peter Crouch Podcast’ and after capturing attention online, we helped further the discussion by discussing and creating the product in 4 weeks. Published from the brand’s social channels, Sprayonnaise engaged UK celebrities from Dragon’s Den to Footballers and landed coverage, specifically of our TikTok content, in the Daily Mail and strangely, Australian daytime TV.

– John Lewis Christmas Ad: To tap into the discussion around the annual celebration of the John Lewis Christmas ad in 2021, we created our own version featuring Heinz Christmas Dinner Soup – generating 1.5m organic impressions and coverage in national news around the holiday season.

Overall, we generated 36m organic impressions for content in social media through our approach and content, as well as 400k followers from launch on TikTok.

// Agency: VaynerMedia EMEA

// Role: Head of Strategy