Heinz has taken the idea of a soap opera and used it to sell its baked beans to consumers.
The company faced a problem with its baked beans—everybody knows what they are, most people love them but they’re not top of mind when they go to cook dinner.
The firm charged its agency DDB Melbourne with the task of selling more of the product without forcing the tagline ‘Beanz meanz Heinz’ down consumers’ throats.
The result was ‘Number 57’, the soap opera, starring the very Australian Hines family. The interesting thing about this campaign is the media buy. It will appear only on the Seven Network in the same commercial breaks each week in an effort to create what is referred to as ‘appointment viewing’.
Mitchell and Partners was responsible for the media strategy and associate partner Candice Cole admits she’s never worked on a media strategy like it before Number 57.
“This media campaign was deliberately created to capture viewers who have regular dates with programs—like Desperate Housewives—and has enabled us to give the campaign longe-vity and continuity that will take it beyond the usual four-week bursts,” she said.
The ‘soap’ was launched on Sunday night and will continue airing new episodes in two-week bursts for the next five months.
Heinz general manager of marketing, Suzanne Douglas, acknowledges that the company can’t take itself too seriously when advertising a product like baked beans.
“We found out that 92% of Australian households have baked beans in their cupboards. It’s part of every day life so we had to make these ads very tongue-in-cheek,” she said.
