Heinz hacked the world’s biggest mobile running apps to target runners - and it worked
Winning The Drum Awards for Social in the Data and Insights category was The Kitchen North America for Kraft Heinz with a campaign called Run On Heinz. Here is the award-winning case study.
Run on Heinz
Through social listening, we discovered a new and unexpectedly niche use of Heinz – long-distance runners were replacing expensive running gels with ketchup packets. Fueled by this insight, we wanted to celebrate this unconventional behavior, and recognize the runners who sprint on our sauce.
So, without an official partnership, we hijacked the world’s biggest running apps and made running routes shaped like our iconic Heinz Keystone that guided runners to Heinz ketchup.
Our goal was to boost brand engagement, generate positive publicity, and foster irrational love for Heinz. Our target was the runners using our packets to fuel their runs, and the running community at large.
Want to go deeper? Ask The Drum
To reach runners directly, we met them in the running apps where they spend their time, and tapped into the global running phenomenon, GPS art. Using the built-in functionality of the running apps, we created the keystone-shaped routes that showed runners where to find our packets.
We launched with an online film, social campaign, and a PR outreach plan that targeted both runner outlets and food lovers.
Without an official partnership, we made our keystone-shaped routes available for free in running apps (like Strava & MapMyRun) at the height of the running season in top-running cities across North America.
Advertisement
To create our routes, we analyzed thousands and thousands of streets to find perfect Heinz keystone shapes that runners could run. Using the apps’ built-in functionality, we dropped our GPS art routes in Strava, and MapMyRun, ensuring they reached our unique target audience. With over 160 million runners on Strava & MapMyRun, our campaign gained international attention and inspired other brands, and runners around the world to draw their own Heinz maps.
Advertisement
Using a niche and quirky insight about runners, Heinz hacked the world’s biggest mobile running apps and met runners directly in the running apps where they already spend their time. We tapped into unique social running behaviors that had our fans literally running on Heinz ketchup. The digital campaign got global coverage, from Singapore to Seoul to San Francisco, amassing over 650M earned impressions, as well as a deep dive feature in the New York Times. But most importantly, we made it clear to our most unique fans that if you’re going for a run, it has to be Heinz.
- 672 Million earned media impressions
- 100+ international headlines, including The New York Times, Runner’s World, Daily Mail, USA Today, Men’s Journal, and ESPN
- International Heinz fans created their own keystone maps
- 1500 runners participated across North America
- 179% increase in social engagement
Ready to get your work recognized on a global stage? Enter The Drum Awards today. Need more inspiration, read our Award Winning Case Studies.