Smart Social Media Campaign – Heinz Ketchup’s Selfie for Good

How can you be smart and use a social media campaign to gain visibility and reach? For 5 months, from last November to March, 2017, Heinz Ketchup held a Selfie for Good campaign. Heinz used November’s Giving Tuesday (November 29^th) to announce their social media campaign. Heinz donated up to $1.57 to Stop Hunger Now for each selfie posted between November and March, 2017. (Stop Hunger Now has since rebranded to Rise Against Hunger.) Heinz announced it would donate up to $200,000 to Stop Hunger Now if enough people “donated” a selfie of themselves with the Heinz Ketchup bottle they found at participating restaurants.

Here’s what you see on each side of the Heinz Ketchup bottles used in restaurants. 

Heinz required that you take a selfie with the ketchup bottle, text it to them, and then post the link they sent you on social media. The company donated up to $200,000 during this campaign, $1.57 at a time. According to their website, Heinz met their $200,000 goal.

Heinz smartly crafted a social media campaign that blended marketing and social good. How could you use a social media campaign to increase your visibility and reach? And is there a way to tie it to a social good?

If you use a similar campaign for your business, keep these tips in mind:

• Have a start and end date for your campaign
• Be sure you can handle the administrative back end tasks for the campaign you set up
• Get buy in from the organization you want to benefit, and ask for their help in spreading the word
• Create a campaign that is a no-brainer for participation – in this case, Heinz had restaurants help spread the word by simply putting the ketchup bottle on their tables – something they were already doing. They weren’t asked to do anything else, and they also got pictures of their restaurant on social media for free.
• Decide how you will publicize your campaign (Heinz tied theirs to a nationally known date).

I’m betting you could come up with a way to build your list using a social media campaign. I talk about how to build a list that is responsive to you in my online course, List Building for Success and Impact – How to Build a List of People Who Actually Buy What You Offer.  

I think Heinz was smart and contributed to social good, as well. What do you think? Share your response below.