Kraft Heinz launches new ad campaign for ambient soup range

Following a pandemic-induced spike in ambient soup sales, Kraft Heinz has launched a new ad campaign amid its peak sales season for the category.

Heinz's new soup ad campaigns take inspiration from history.

After a pandemic-induced spike in ambient soup sales, Kraft Heinz is counting on more predictable consumer purchasing patterns to market its products this winter, with an ad campaign that launches in Australia today.

Kraft Heinz usually makes half of its total year’s soup sales in the months from May to August, while household penetration also roughly doubles as consumers turn to soup in winter.

To sell soup today, the brand has looked to the past.

The ad campaign, which comes from creative agency TBWA\Sydney, takes its cues from history, depicting soup in art and historical artefacts throughout the centuries and civilisations.

One poster shows a still life arrangement styled akin to a Dutch Golden Age painting, with a bowl of soup at its centre and the line, “The greatest thing since before sliced bread (also goes great with sliced bread)”, along with the phrase “Good then. Great Now.”

Heinz's new soup ad campaigns take inspiration from history.

In a series of 15 second video spots, imagined and animated scenes show people enjoying their soup in different historical contexts with contemporary voice-overs.

In one ad set in an ancient Greek era, an equally age-old form of human behaviour – a sibling scuffle – is mediated by a parent. A quarrelling brother and sister are brought together with an enticing bowl of soup – followed by an ultimatum fitting of the times and origins of long-distance running; “Now, no more bickering, or you won’t be going to the marathon”.

The final scene in the series of the three 15 second videos feature a bowl of soup, a Heinz-labelled tin of the product and raw ingredients which reference the soup flavour (tomatoes for its best-selling Big Red, carrots and a tomato for its Big ’n Chunky Beef and Veggies soup, and pumpkin for its Creamy Pumpkin product).

Each arrangement is placed in front of a richly-coloured, jewel-tone curtain as part of its distinctive aesthetic.

Kraft Heinz chief marketing officer Rebecca Preston told The Growth Agenda: “While our tastes have changed over time, the reasons we reach for soup have remained the same.”

“With the colder months of winter coming and cost of living rising, now is the perfect time to cosy up with history’s greatest ever comfort food as we head into the future,” Ms Preston said.

The largest of Heinz ambient soup sales across Australia comprise five flavours; tomato, chicken, beef, vegetable and pumpkin.

In the first half of 2020, the onset of the Covid pandemic triggered a surge in Heinz shelf-stable soups, which jumped almost 30 per cent from the previous year.

The soup category for Kraft Heinz in Australia and New Zealand has seen a rise in value growth over the past three years, tracking between 4 per cent and 5 per cent.

Now, as consumers feel the bite of inflation, the brand is seeing anopportunity for the category again.

“There is a clear trend of consumers trading into frozen/canned foods for cost saving that is playing out across the globe, including in Australia,” Ms Preston said.

In February, Kraft Heinz said it would halt price increases in North America, Europe, Latin America and most of Asia, and this also applies to the soup range in the Australian market.

“Costs have significantly increased for food manufacturers globally over the past few years for a multitude of reasons,” Ms Preston said. “We have made every effort to absorb costs where possible. In the absence of any unforeseen circumstances, we are not expecting to increase the cost of the soup range this year.”

Katrina Alvarez-Jarratt, executive creative director, TBWA\Sydney and Rebecca Preston, chief marketing officer, Kraft Heinz

Katrina Alvarez-Jarratt, executive creative director at TBWA\Sydney said the starting point for the campaign was rooted in historical insights that retain their relevance today.

“As marketers and advertisers we are very good at embracing the new, and even creating trends – just look at our obsession with NFT’s, QR codes and the metaverse – but it can’t come at the cost of insight and truth,” she said.

“When we really dug into our relationship with soup, the truth is, that across cultures and across continents we have been eating it for 20,000 years.

“In fact, it was one of the first things we ever cooked. While ingredients and tastes have changed (the first soup was “hippo”) the general concept has survived. Why? Because soup is delicious, easy to make, hearty and filling.

“So, despite living in wildly different times, this humble meal still has a place on our tables.”

The new campaign will appear on cinema screens, out-of-home, social, TV and broadcast video-on-demand ad placements.

Ms Preston said: “We love that the campaign has tapped into something powerful about the role of soup in people’s lives today and over generations, across civilisations. We believe that we could evolve this over the next few years.”