Heinz's clever campaign to combat ketchup fraud

Is that Heinz?

January 23, 2024

Hello, awesome marketers and founders.

This is Luv, and here’s your weekly Marketing Shot :)

(Delivered every Tuesday)

In today’s Marketing Shot:💡 Heinz's clever campaign to combat ketchup fraud🗞️ 5 Noteworthy Updates from the Digital World😂 Marketing Meme

Heinz's clever campaign to combat ketchup fraud

Ever had that suspicion that the ketchup you're squeezing onto your fries isn't real? Heinz sure did, and they cooked up a clever solution to tackle the problem of independent restaurants switching ketchup in the Heinz bottle.

Independent restaurants refilled empty Heinz ketchup bottles with a cheaper alternative.

Not only was Heinz missing out on sales, but there was also the risk of brand damage.

So, what did the Heinz team do? They went full-on detective mode and identified the exact Pantone red of Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Then, they used this distinctive colour on the labels of their ketchup bottles. It's like a ketchup fingerprint – a foolproof way to tell if you're having the authentic Heinz or a cheaper alternative.

Body image for Heinz cracks down on ketchup counterfeiters with colour swatch labels

Heinz created a bit of saucy detective work by encouraging customers to call out restaurants on Social Media.

The pressure was on outlets to ditch the fakes and stock up the authentic ketchup.

According to contagious.com, 97% of consumers became ketchup detectives, successfully spotting the real Heinz from the fakes.

The result?

There was a 73% drop in non-Heinz ketchup refills and a 24% increase in Heinz ketchup usage in street food joints.

The campaign also effectively drove brand visibility, with 100,000 organic shares on social media and 800,000 likes on TikTok.

🗞️ 5 Noteworthy Updates

  • ChatGpt to get video capabilities this year (read)

  • Google has introduced Circle to Search, a simple way to find what you're looking for (read)

  • Deliver personalised 1:1 videos over and over without recording anything using AI (read)

  • Adobe Premiere Pro's new AI features make it easy to remove unwanted sounds in seconds (read)

  • Canva has introduced a new ChatGpt plugin (read)

Marketing Meme 😂

See you next Tuesday :)Thanks,