How Heinz's unique packaging helps you get the perfect angle to pour your ketchup
The Background
It’s been a first-world dilemma for years – how do you get your Heinz Tomato Ketchup out of its iconic glass bottle, so it pours perfectly?
Ok you could change to a squeezable plastic bottle, but with the world’s consumers fast turning against plastic packaging, is that really a solution?
Why not just educate instead as it’s all about the angle according to Heinz in Canada?
The Big Idea
Despite years of old wives’ tales of the best way to get the ketchup out including karate chops to the bottle, bottom slaps on the base and spinning it to loosen the contents, Heinz in Canada decided to take on this conundrum and produced unique packaging in a limited-edition trial in Toronto.
And the solution was to show ketchup fans that’s it’s all about getting the bottle at a 45-degree angle which apparently helps with the flow.
Simple.
What They Did
So how do you communicate the need for the bottle to be at a 45-degree angle in a simple way that will show everyone what the perfect pouring angle is?
Their solution was to change the angle of the label on the bottle.
The Pour-Perfect bottle is a traditional Heinz bottle but with the main label and graphics on the neck label turned so they become level to the pourer when the 45-degree angle is achieved.
A very simple idea by using lateral thinking.
The Review
Yes, it’s gimmicky and may well be just a PR stunt for a short period but hey, it intrigued me as a devoted ketchup nut.
From the short video produced to support the initiative, shoppers seem intrigued at first, but then the penny drops when they tip the bottle at the point of purchase.
The other thing it creates is an interesting on-shelf display as it definitely looks odd compared to the other sauces and condiments sited around it in-store.
That on-shelf stand out may well have been at the heart of the creative idea and the real reason for doing this, but it seems to work.
In Hindsight
This is advertised as a limited-edition bottle so maybe it was just a PR stunt for a short period of time or it’s a test to see what the reaction is.
Either way I find it quite clever in an obvious way.
Great creative ideas are often very, very simple.
Be great to see a TV and poster campaign initiated using the same idea of looking at things in a different way.
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