2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

For the first time on TV, national food legends were sang a trendy jingle to influence culture and truly change consumer consumption habits; the infamous Brens, Kadoura, Dahan, Abu Ammar. Finding a loop-hole and deeply-routed misconception enabled us to insightfully reach millions with local relevance and billion's attention globally. Being market leaders in the category, Heinz needed authentic penetrating techniques. Introduce an innovative food trend, a local movement, try our sauces with every plate you consume. With a highly opinionated culture, we dove in nose-first and our new controversial consumption occasion, saw unwavering success; thanks to the legends.

Background

With local retailers competing with extremely low prices, Heinz always prevailed due to their quality and consumer preference to the taste. Heinz always took consumer-obsessed to a new level and constantly showed their vision; to sustainably grow by delighting more consumers globally. Globally, Heinz would select the brands and tailor products to adapt to different markets. Having been the Egyptian market leaders for so long but with zero growth we needed to correct the misconception and increase consumption per capita. Key objectives: 1) Ads viewership & engagement worldwide 2) Sustain and gain +50% market penetration in Egypt by 2020 3) Sustain and gain +50% market share in Egypt by 2020 4) Increase consumption per capita by 3x in Egypt

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Ketchup is perceived as a western sauce; and associated with western food, only. We decided to capitalize on this insight and boldly introduce a controversial consumption occasion. So, instead of your average chef, we sparked the trend with a catchy tune from four national food icons, El Brens, Kadoura, Dahan, Abu Ammar each with their specialty dish. From local food legends to ambassadors of food combinations; they challenged the norm and urged consumers in an entertaining yet authoritative way singing, Heinz Ketchup; "It works" on the most authentic Egyptian signature dishes. Striking a chord with consumers was difficult, our only chance was using deeply-rooted highly-trusted advocates, that were never seen before on TV.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Knowing the influence and purchasing power of youth, we focused our efforts on understanding the Gen Z's and the social media behavior. They were patriotic and continuously supported local brands. We conducted an experiment; we got one person within a group to add ketchup to different Egyptian dishes and monitored their reactions! Although this created a heated conversation, it was never a negative one. Our key insight from the experiment; Ketchup is perceived as a western sauce; and associated with western food, only. We conducted research and surveys to understand; the Egyptian youth's behavior and consumption patterns towards food through Social media. We found that the youth focused on two pillars: challenges and innovations. We decided to change the good fight into a food fight between them; introduce a controversial consumption occasion using locals; El Brens Kadoura, Dahan, Abu Ammar.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Why them? Well, a visit to these restaurants is considered a "day-trip" and a solid cause for a "celebration". We sparked the movement with a catchy tune on all social platforms featuring national food icons. Each inviting the other to use Heinz with their specialty dish, creating a ripple effect. We started the journey on Youtube, and took consumers to Facebook where they were asked to tag friends that use Heinz with local foods before the legends called it out. Then we took the campaign to Tiktok with a challenge for consumers to share the weirdest combination of Heinz they've previously made. We made everyone feel like they were their own food legends.

List the results (30% of vote)

Jaws dropped! Given tiktok's popularity amongst the youth; our second film saw a staggering 1.5B views worldwide, 120M views in Egypt with a benchmark of only 40K. A strong digital debate between consumers leveraged the #Heinz_works challenge which was moved to Tiktok and 67K users contributed by creating their own dishes using Heinz sauce. Organically, the first film saw 160K views on the first day, Youtube cost-per-view was -30% vs. industry average, and four times the average click-through-rate on all social media platforms. Heinz became category leaders with more than 80% market share, 76% of existing consumers increase consumption per capita by 5x. We managed to carry the brand from obsoleteness, to center stage.

Please tell us how the work was designed / adapted for a single country / region / market.

Egyptians eat chicken, meat and fish more often than fast food or western food. And Heinz being an American brand, was labeled by locals as a foreign brand associated with western food. To be able to penetrate the market we needed to integrate ourselves in their daily lives. So, we got the strongest local restaurant owners that offer the foods that are consumed daily; El Brens, Kadoura, Dahan, or Abu Ammar. It's safe to say that these represent the most influential local food trends, but they are not your average influencers. Adding sauces to your signature dish is perceived as an insult to a chef, but we got them to challenge the norm and add it in spite of the case at hand to inspire consumers' trials'. But, with the good combination and taste it created, a massive ripple effect was witnessed and it was seen as a movement.