The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2021
Heinz asks strangers to draw ketchup — everyone draws the same bottle
Rethink's anonymous five-continent experiment proves category ownership: told only 'draw ketchup,' people draw Heinz — and the drawings become the campaign.
Heinz (Kraft Heinz)
What it had to solve
Heinz Ketchup is the default brand of its category, but that ownership is usually asserted in advertising. Rethink Canada wanted to demonstrate it with evidence: ask people what ketchup looks like without telling them the experiment is for Heinz, then turn the result into the campaign itself.
How it works
In January 2021 Heinz Ketchup and Canadian agency Rethink launched a social experiment: participants across five continents — in anonymous focus groups, on international video calls and in man-on-the-street surveys — were asked to draw ketchup. None were told the experiment was for Heinz.
Almost all of them drew the same thing: a bright red bottle with 'Heinz' written on it, or the keystone label, the '57' or a tomato on the vine. One participant drew mustard. The drawings were then used as new labels on a limited-release run of Heinz bottles, featured in the campaign film, and put on digital billboards and other out-of-home media.
Heinz also turned the audience into creators: from January 18 to 31, Canadians could submit their own ketchup drawings for a chance to win one of 250 custom bottles with their label printed on it. Media was handled by Carat and public relations by the Colony Project.
The agency's case page reports 1,495% social engagement, 127x publicity versus initial media investment and a +10% sales lift versus pre-launch — evidence that category ownership, when proven by the public, becomes content people want to share.
Why it lands
- The idea turned a brand claim into a test anyone could reproduce, so the evidence was the message.
- By hiding the brand, Heinz let participants generate the proof, making the result more credible than any ad assertion.
- The drawings were instantly usable assets — labels, billboards, packaging — so the experiment became the whole campaign with minimal production.
- Inviting the public to draw their own labels turned viewers into participants and created a second, user-generated wave.
What it did
The agency case page reports 1,495% social engagement, 127x publicity versus initial media investment and a +10% sales lift versus pre-launch, with the drawings reposted across international coverage and the campaign cited as proof of brand memory.
What you can take
When the brand is the category, don't claim it — demonstrate it: an anonymous drawing task makes people reproduce your packaging, and the proof becomes the campaign.
Since then
Heinz and Rethink extended the idea in 2022 with 'Heinz A.I. Ketchup,' feeding the image generator DALL-E 2 the same prompt — the AI also drew Heinz bottles — and followed with further salience experiments such as 'Ketchup Fraud' and the keystone-shaped 'It has to be Heinz' work. Draw Ketchup thus became the seed of a sustained brand-ownership platform and is regularly cited in awards case studies as proof of brand memory.
Sources
- Heinz Draw Ketchup — We anonymously asked people around the world to draw ketchup. They all drew Heinz.
- Heinz Anonymously Asked People to Draw Ketchup...They All Drew Heinz
- 亨氏做了一场实验，你心里的番茄酱只能是我啊
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