Creative Spotlight: Heinz Hidden Spots
Gamers are hungry for a lot of things - frags, moments, clips, Ws, duos, smack talk and more - but most importantly, they are hungry for...snacks. And one challenge they face is that during the fast-paced modern game environment, there are barely moments to breathe let alone snack.
“80% of gamers eat and drink while playing, but it’s much harder to do this in multiplayer online games like Call of Duty, where an ill-timed break can cost you the match” - Isabella Rizzo, VP of Marketing at Kraft Heinz.
So Heinz took this as an opportunity to help gamers in Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific’s Caldera Map by giving them a map to the safest spots on the map to hide and snack.
Apart from having a great insight for Heinz about consumption, this campaign also had a fantastic insight towards gamers as well. Camping is a negative term in the gaming world - describing a player who hides in an obscure spot to get easy frags or kills on unsuspecting opponents. But this campaign suddenly gave a legit reason to hide in one of those spots - reframing camper as a positive.
“Gamers usually say that campers are cowards for hiding to ambush other players, but with the world’s favorite ketchup brand partnering with the world’s favorite gaming franchise, Heinz is here to help gamers eat in peace as they fight in the warzone. We’re excited for hungry gamers to find these Hidden Spots and hope they’re now able to pass the Heinz without the risk of passing away in the game.” - Murilo Melo, Executive Creative Director at GUT São Paulo.
One key takeout in an interview with Ashleigh Gibson, the Brand Director of Heinz, by Chief Marketer, was the need for brands to become authentic helpers in the gaming space, and not intruders or disruptors.
"This is entertainment for them; we don’t want to be disruptors. We focused on finding a space where we could help them advance their gameplay. We know that people are spending hours on this game, and they need a moment to take a break. They need a moment to eat." - Ashleigh Gibson, Heinz
Heinz launched the idea in a way that made sense to gamers - be inviting them to watch their favourite streamers on Twitch and YouTube smash burgers while dominating games of Call of Duty. This resulted in a metric ton of content, views, talk, PR and more for Heinz. And instantly inserted them into the world of gaming in a way that worked for the brand.
The case study below tells it all - enjoy!
References:
Chief Marketer and European Gaming
Call of Duty: Warzone is a free-to-play, free-for-everyone battle royale experience that more than 100 million players around the world have jumped into play. Call of Duty: Warzone is integrated with Call of Duty: Vanguard, Call of Duty®: Black Ops Cold War, and Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare®. Call of Duty and its titles are published by Activision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) and developed by studios (in alphabetical order) Activision Shanghai, Beenox, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games.