Heinz switches from local to pan-European Facebook strategy
Heinz has dropped the local approach to Facebook marketing for its flagship Tomato Ketchup brand in favour of a pan-European strategy designed to boost content production around its first campaign for the region in nearly 10 years.
The food maker has always placed the social network at the fore of its digital drive but opted for more of fragmented presence to support wider, localised objectives of the brand. It has scrapped the approach in order to stamp a consistent look and feel for the brand on Facebook across Europe.
Heinz has merged over 10 individual Tomato Ketchup pages into one, central page with a collective fanbase of over 1.2 million. Similarly to how local pages work, the revamped structure directs fans to a localised version of a single Facebook URL based on their geographical location.
It exploits the changes Facebook made in 2012 when it introduced global pages to provide a more streamlined, localised experience for both marketers and fans. It saw brands including Reebok and Cadbury consolidate their offerings in the immediate aftermath and Heinz says its switch will accelerate “content led activation”.
The switch has been made to support the launch of Heinz Tomato Ketchup’s first pan-European campaign in seven years today (1 October).
The ad has seven different versions that will seven different markets to reflect local tastes. For example, a bacon sandwich is featured as the food Ketchup is spread on in the UK advert, whereas in France and Spain sauté potatoes and chicken fillets are shown instead.
A key pillar of the creative will be the messaging around the brand promise to only use Heinz Tomatoes in the sauce’s recipe. While the brand has dialled up the messaging around the goodness of the sauce, the success of its campaign to get parents to “Grow Your Own” tomatoes over the last two years pushed it to make it a prominent part of its strategy.
Giles Jepson, vice president of marketing for Heinz Europe, told Marketing Week: “Unlike our past Heinz Tomato Ketchup campaigns, this new [effort] has been specifically developed as a pan-European campaign. It really celebrates the idea of bringing food to life and also champions the quality of the tomatoes which also helps give the sauce its unmistakable taste.”
It is hoped the effort can extend a reported surge in demand for its sauces in the UK in 2014 after sales dropped last year. Despite heavy investment in advertising and innovation since 2012, volume sales for Heinz Tomato Ketchup dropped 7 per cent year-on-year for the year to 17 August 2013, according to IRI.