For a 100% natural Halloween

Heinz proved that, on Halloween, being scared is 100% natural.

By revealing to the world that natural tomatoes usually have a terrifying face, we put the naturalness of Heinz ketchup at the center of the conversation, while being relevant in one of the most ad-saturated moments of the year. Reaching 15M impressions in less than 24 hours and making an impact on more than 11 countries, being named as one of the Top 5 Campaigns of Halloween by Ad Age.

Terrifying Tomatoes Video Case Cannes 2023

This is one of those campaigns that manages to connect the dots naturally. Heinz's strategy and personality, the tomato, which is its main ingredient, and one of the parties that generates the most conversation throughout the year. And, naturally, it worked.

Paco Badia

Executive Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson Spain

Heinz is Ketchup, but first tomato. In 2021, Heinz presented its new global positioning, celebrating the naturalness and flavour of its main ingredient. A creative platform aimed at fighting the consumer perception that Heinz ketchup is an industrial product, not essentially made from tomatoes. So, we had on mind to take advantage of any opportunity that would put the Heinz tomato at the centre of the conversation in a creative way, with the brand's witty tone.

Some internet memes made us realize that a freshly cut tomato often has a terrifying face. A simple yet powerful insight that no brand had explored before. We thought that these "terrifying tomatoes" could be a great way to communicate the naturalness of Heinz tomatoes and capture the brand’s witty tone of voice.

There’s nothing more natural than being scared on Halloween. So we decided to use our tomatoes to terrify our followers, claiming a 100% natural Halloween. Thus, we casted hundreds of tomatoes to select only the scariest ones and we designed a layout to maximize their expressiveness. And we took them out in the scariest corners of London and Barcelona to turn them into a buzzworthy Halloween visual that became part of the conversation. We also expanded the campaign by hacking Heinz content social media channels and interactive OOH displays with jump-scare effects.

With a minimum paid media investment, the campaign was launched in 13 countries and achieved over 15 million impressions in just one day, and not just any day: one with the highest advertising saturation from all brands worldwide.