The brand has invested in cultural and digital connections to establish new points of contact and position its main product
The Heinz brand left the Cannes Festival with four Lions, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze, from the ‘Hidden Spots’ campaign, created by GUT São Paulo. The action was the first created for the brand to dialogue specifically with the universe of games, now on the rise and highly disputed by brands.
A way to relevantly connect the public with hamburgers, which represent the main consumption occasion for its main product, ketchup. The example shows the way the brand has found to participate in conversations in different environments and occasions.
It can also be seen in ‘Pizza Meme’, with personalized pizzas on Ketchup Day, and in ‘Unfinished Burgers’, released days before this year’s Oscars to question Hollywood why characters never finish their hamburgers in the movies.
“We look for provocative ideas and different ways to impact because we need to find ways to connect with consumers”, says Cecília Alexandre, Heinz’s director of communication. Thus, the brand positions the discourse adopted in recent years that combines product superiority and naturalness, by having only six ingredients.
It does this, according to the executive, seeking to deliver 3Vs, translated into “truth, speed and experience”. She uses the same speech to answer about the brand’s entry into the metaverse, another fever of the moment.
“We cannot be superficial. We will enter in a Heinz way and have to be consistent. What we cannot be here are opportunists. It needs to have a plan, a strategy and that is relevant and consistent,” she explains. Despite not having any concrete action, it foresees that the first initiative will come between this semester and the beginning of next year.
expanding channels
It is also for the coming months that it also intends to expand the contact channels. One of the actions is a chatbot on WhatsApp, developed by a martech of the company, which directs consumers to the nearest hamburgers. The second is the implementation of free Heinz Wi-Fi in 30 Bullguer stores across the country. Recently, it also connected to Alexa, giving the option to indicate a hamburger or a recipe. “We want to be at the side of consumers in a relavent and without being invasive”, he says.
For this, he says that the strategy is very much based on data, in a process of collection, treatment and construction to make them active with efficiency in communication. A journey that still has a long way to go, recognizes the professional, in the face of all the transformations that the industry is experiencing.
In social media, The Kitchen, in-house created in Canada in 2020 and which had Brazil, in September 2021, as the first destination among Latin American countries, has been responsible for dealing with the volume of data currently generated. For Cecilia, the new model represented gains in proximity and speed, with faster responses to consumers, and by offering “more relevant insights”.
According to the executive, this whole process has reflected in the growth of the brand in ketchups, today a leader in market share, a result that has spilled over into other products such as mayonnaise and tomato sauce. “We do tend to explore other categories, but it’s as the cake grows”, she added.
