Episode 112 - Heinz AI Ketchup Ad Reviewed By Al Ain Water and Unilever
In this week’s Advertisers Watching Ads episode, we look at an iconic brand through the medium of AI and see whether its heritage holds up today. Heinz Ketchup and Rethink Canada have created a campaign which seems to tick all the boxes on first sight, but how relevant is it for the day-to-day consumer?
Watch the ad chosen by Contagious to see how AI was used, and hear from our guests Falak Jalil (Marketing Manager for Al Ain Water & Innovations at Agthia Group PJSC), Seb Bardin (Head of E-commerce Marketing at Unilever) and Adrian O’Brien (Senior Manager in the Global Skincare Team at Unilever).
They rated this ad 3.3 out of 5 - find out why!
Episode 112 - Heinz AI Ketchup Ad Reviewed By Al Ain Water and Unilever
Transcript - It’s not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, and this is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
This week, we are brought to you as ever by Contagious, so please go and check those guys out after the show. But before we see this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Falak Jalil 0:26
Hi, my name is Falak. I'm the Marketing Manager for Al Ain Water & Innovations at a UAE-based firm called Agthia.
Seb Bardin 0:35
It's Seb, from Unilever. I'm working off the... I'm the person looking after Ecommerce Marketing.
Adrian O'Brien 0:40
It's Adrian O'Brien here. I'm also from Unilever. I'm a Senior Manager in the Global Skincare Team.
Tom Ollerton 0:45
Heinz Ketchup is one of the most immediately recognizable brands on the planet, but is the brand recognizable to artificial intelligence? Let's find out.
We're gonna give this a vote out a five. So on a count of three, hold up your fingers. One, two, three... A three, a three, and a four.
Falak Jalil 2:01
Yeah, I give it a four.
Tom Ollerton 2:03
Right... So, so that's where it sits in the current lead table. Okay... Seb, what is going on?
Seb Bardin 2:10
Based on what I understand it is a campaign that was running in Canada, where... They've used AI to generate images and in this case, it was... Every time you type ketchup, the bottle was a Heinz Ketchup bottle.
Tom Ollerton 2:26
So Falak, what did you think when you saw this?
Falak Jalil 2:30
Genuinely, it's a brilliant piece of communication. It ticks all the boxes on ABCD. It immediately grabs your attention with the opening line. It's very creative. It uses AI in a very clever way. And overall, delivery is really good. It provides some laughs in the end as well. I thought that they wanted to show that Heinz is not just a heritage brand, but still relevant to today's consumer. And by using AI and the various quirky prompts that they used, they were able to prove that it plays an iconic role in pop culture today as well. So for me, like the fact that it combines technology with human creativity, it allows them to speak to Gen Z very effectively as well.
Adrian O'Brien 3:09
Yeah, I think it's a very sort of contemporary zeitgeisty take on a claim that we've all used before, which is, you know, "UK's number one," or something like that. And previously, we would just do it based on Nielsen sales data. And this is a very zeitgeisty way of saying, no, actually, this is clearly the market leader. They're clearly the most iconic brand that represents the category. So yeah, a very contemporary way of bringing that sort of message through. And I think this is taking on the next, next stage of saying no matter who creates it, whether it's human or not human, it's still recognizable as Heinz Ketchup.
Seb Bardin 3:42
Nowadays, every time someone is talking about AI, it's just amplified online. I don't know if you remember about, you know, the... Théâtre d'Opéra Spatial, which is this famous piece of art from Jason Allen, which generated a piece of art, just using AI. So everyone was talking about it, I think 10 days ago, 15 days ago about, "Oh, the machine is taking over art." And you know, "What happened to human?" Every time, I can see something about AI in the press, you know, like everyone is just going crazy about it.
Tom Ollerton 4:11
Is this a kind of, just a, an attempt just to make sure... This just gets whacked in the shopping trolley just 'cause it... People remember it?
Adrian O'Brien 4:18
I'm not sure it, it's gonna recruit new users, you know? I don't think it's gonna bring new occasions into the category. It's like a share, steal, retain users type of strategy which shows Heinz is absolutely iconic, and you should continue to buy it. And, and maybe also thinking about their route to market with food service and B2B with restaurants and retailers and stuff. There's somebody in between the manufacturer and the consumer, so maybe there's also a B2B strategy of, of sort of cementing their iconic status.
Falak Jalil 4:48
So one of the things that I was thinking was that... Because I was thinking about what Adrian was talking about, how, you know, what is the purpose of this communication? And given the look and feel and how they're trying to appeal to Gen Z, you know, trying to make it pop culture, one of the reasons could be that they're losing traction with the younger audiences. So either they're losing market share, or you know, Gen Z is just not interested anymore. They want their Chipotle ketchup, or I don't know... I'm not Gen Z, clearly.
Seb Bardin 5:18
What I find quite interesting, it's more... The consistency in terms of the message, you know, of the approach. So, yes, there was a draw ketchup. I think it has a natural evolution. Yeah, so it's AI, so probably the next one will be NFT. I don't know. Yes, we are Heinz, everyone recognize us, from human to robots. So yeah, it's definitely showing, still showing how cool their brand is. I think, probably like the last bit, probably, I would like to listen, it's more you know, how much did this campaign cost? Now, what the agency did is just type, type some keywords...
Adrian O'Brien 5:47
There's a limited shoot, production monies there, isn't there? Exactly. What's really interesting, I guess, is in time of recession and economic crisis, and all this sort of stuff we know about brands, having to sort of retrench on the big brands and continue to kind of rely on that. And I think this could also be part of the conversation of making sure that Heinz remains the iconic number one in this category. At a time when lots of consumers will be questioning different purchases, and downtrading. And this is a way to retain the brand's iconic status with its current consumers and maybe with staff and maybe with, you know, B2B route to market kind of thing.
Tom Ollerton 6:28
So what... So what would have made this better?
Falak Jalil 6:30
I didn't see the campaignability, you know? So other than social media... What, what's happening with the communication, you know? Can we take it down to activation? I don't know, outdoor... Anything... It just didn't seem like it could be stretched across different mediums. And what I said earlier, also, because it's an open tool, even if you invite consumers to put in their own prompt, you don't know the output you're gonna get. So that's a risk also, frankly.
Seb Bardin 7:02
What was missing, I think, for me, it's more the... The consumer approach as part of this campaign. So yes, the agency type, the keywords, and lead, that's it. So... You know, where is the consumer as part of this? So I think for me, that was a little bit what, what's missing. I guess, yeah. Everything's behind the scenes. If you want to learn more... Yeah, you need to read all the PR articles around it. But I think that will be probably make a difference whether it's AI, not AI, but at least, you know, get this wow factor on the go from your average Joe, or you know, or your millennial out there.
Tom Ollerton 7:32
From mainstream audience, who believes this would really resonate?
Adrian O'Brien 7:36
I think a lot of people know about AI. They just don't know what it is. So you almost don't need the AI to be central to the storytelling. Just by putting it there, it makes it feel zeitgeisty, and you just need to reaffirm to people, yes Heinz is the number one. And I think that's what it's trying to do. It's not... It's not making a genuine attempt to engage in AI. It's more of a, kind of a Emperor's New Clothes type thing on what they've done before.
Tom Ollerton 8:00
Would you've signed this off? Yes or no? Thumbs up or down? One, two, three...
Falak Jalil 8:07
Yeah.
Tom Ollerton 8:07
Brilliant. Seb, Adrian, Falak, thank you so much for your time.
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