Heinz Brought Back Its Tomato Blood Just In Time For Halloween
If face paint is out of your budget this year, there's no need to worry if you have Heinz ketchup in your pantry. After the popular condiment-based company gained a new CEO in 2019 (via Kraft Heinz), the brand changed its marketing strategy. Heinz's U.S. Zone President, Carlos Abrams-Rivera told Food Dive that the COVID-19 pandemic expanded the brand's household market, leading the company to fuel its efforts more toward young people by instilling "sizable communication investments and media choices."
2020 marked the beginning of Heinz tomato blood, as the company's Brand Marketing Manager, Shelly Hayden, pitched the product by creating a relationship between Heinz tomato blood and marked times of difference. The message was clear: celebrating holidays during a worldwide pandemic is a unique experience, so why not use Heinz tomato blood to get in the Halloween spirit? (per Business Wire). The 2020 campaign also elicited the participation of social media users by offering them a chance to win bottles of Heinz tomato blood upon featuring the popular ketchup in TikTok videos.
In 2021, tomato blood returned with its first-ever live-streamed pop-up Halloween shop in Los Angeles and Heinz tomato blood costume kits (via Kraft Heinz). This year, Heinz is taking its brand engagement up a notch by rereleasing its classic tomato blood in one unique, spooktacular way.
Tomato blood is back with the help of a 'vegetarian vampire'
Heinz decided to flex its creative muscles this Halloween: Beyond the brand's scary new U.K. offering, Heinz has fueled its 2022 tomato blood marketing through TikTok influencer EJ Marcus. While the TikToker originally gained fandom through a parody of the classic Los Angeles dad, he has garnered quite a large following from multiple videos over the last year (via Bustle).
Heinz has enlisted his help this October and transformed Marcus into Toby, the vegetarian vampire to promote this year's Heinz tomato blood. The concept was first introduced through a sneak peek video in late September (via Tiktok) and then officially released a few days later through a longer promotional video on YouTube. According to Business Wire, in addition to spreading awareness of Heinz tomato blood and convincing human-eating vampires to go vegetarian, Heinz is also partnering with Six Flags in promotion of an amusement park food offering this October: "totally loaded 'bloody' nacho fries" in celebration of Fright Fest which Toby highlights on the Heinz TikTok channel.
Additionally, Heinz will be featured on channels via Fandom and linking up with Twitch to bring fans more vampire-related content (per Business Wire). The brand is going the extra mile by taking the time to respond to social media users as seen in the comments of the "what I eat in a day" video on TikTok. After all, Toby hopes "you'll switch to Heinz tomato blood because humans are people too."