Heinz Big Game ‘LVII Meanz 57’ Campaign Lobbies NFL To Swap Roman Numerals For Traditional Numbers

Every year plenty of American Football fans feel a little confused by the Roman numerals linked to the Super Bowl, so Heinz leveraged the link between 2023’s LVII Big Game and its own familiar ’57 (Varieties)’ label tagline through a campaign called ‘LVII Meanz 57’.

The brand’s famous tomato ketchup has had the number 57 proudly displayed on its label for more than 100 hundred years and leveraged this brand fact into a multi-platform campaign asking football fans across the USA whether the tournament should axe its traditional Roman numerals in favour of numerical formats everyone can understand.

Heinz and creative agency Rethink (with Carat running media and Zeno Group handling PR and influencers) rolled out a campaign leveraging the Kansas City Chiefs v Philadelphia Eagles matchup by exploring whether the NFL’s numerical approach is outdated and suggesting that the league needs to move on.

Launched through a vox pop style spot (which dropped on 25 January) asking the public what they think LVII means (offering some funny responses), the campaign spans social (Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok), plus OOH and OLV, print, influencers and digital with creative driving viewers to a dedicated website where consumers can vote to end Roman numerals and enter a sweepstakes to win a limited-edition bottle of Heinz.

The spearhead spot, set to ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ overture, features on-the-street interviews with consumers to telling an interviewer what LVII means and among the answers are ‘Livey’, ‘a movie that came out, but it’s like the 200th version of it’, while one respondent suggests the NFL consider using emojis to avoid confusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PmDOSvKCNI

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Other notable elements of the campaign included wild postings featuring messages like ‘Roman numerals are super confusing’, and ‘Roman numbers haven’t been cool since MCMXCII’.

There will be 1,000 winners from the US and Canada – randomly selected from those who voted online – receiving commemorative ketchup bottles.

The campaign was created by a team at agency Rethink which included Chief Creative Officers Aaron Starkman and Mike Dubrick, Chief Strategy Officer Sean McDonald, Creative Director Zachary Bautista, Associate Creative Director Geoff Baillie, Copwriters Geoff Baillie and Phil Coulter, Art Directors Zachary Bautista and Stefan D’Aversa, Strategists Julian Morgan and Emma Bayfield, Producers Nadya MacNeil and Kate Spencer, Digitial Producer Kate Spencer, Print Producer Kate Spencer, Studio Managers Brad Kumar, Justin Chan and Kostas Loukopoulos, Account Directors Jamie Sutherland and David Greisman, Account Manager Rachel Cloth and Account Lead Jamie Flatow.

Production, post-production and VFX were handled by R+D Productions.

Comment

This is a clever, opportunistic campaign that piggybacks the huge interest in the Big Game and inserts the brand into the sporting cultural conversation.

Indeed, the campaign was a response to a simple brief: how could Heinz play their rightful role in the conversation around this game?

The idea was developed from the insight that Roman numerals cause confusion – as expressed in 2022 when many viewers of the Big Game who expressed frustration about the NFL’s numerical approach on social media.

While historically Heinz has bought/created Super Bowl TV ad spots, this initiative illustrates how the Kraft Heinz Company marketing team’s strategy is evolving its approach into a creative approach to disruption in culture.

According to the agency, thus far the campaign has generated ‘huge engagement and support across the board’ (with 21,000 online votes as of 1 February) and, while it plans to release results immediately around game time, ‘it’s pretty clear based on the numbers (73% thus far) people want numbers to be numbers and fans think the NFL should ditch Roman numerals for the big game once and for all’.

Plus, if you yourself struggle to understand Roman numerals, don’t worry – according to Rethink Associate Creative Director Geoff Baillie, Creative Director Zachary Bautista and Heinz’s Alyssa Cicero, you are not alone as the majority of Canadians and Americans asked had no idea what ‘LVII’ meant.

Also, if you are wondering why the NFL uses an ancient and often confusing numbering system for its marquee, the answer is that because the Big Game takes place in the year after the one during which the regular season is played the organisers felt identifying it via numerals rather than the year would help avoid confusion and AFL founder and then Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt felt using Roman numerals would add some gravitas to a sport already steeped in gladiatorial imagery.

Also, while we are on the subject, according to the New York Times, the Big Game was originally called ‘The AFL-NFL World Championship Game’ until someone at a media meeting used the words ‘Super Bowl’ casually in passing and it stuck.