Case study: Heinz Facebook ‘Five beanz’ quiz reaches 10m people

Back in the summer of 2012, Heinz promoted its new ‘Five Beanz’ range via a Facebook quiz offering the chance to win one of the five beans with their name engraved on it.


As part of the marketing activities around a new Five Beanz variety, Agency We Are Social created a Facebook quiz app that told people what kind of bean they had grown up to become in response to a series of questions about their personality traits.
The contest helped fans determine whether they’re a Pinto or a Borlotti, or if they lean more toward the Red Kidney, Borlotti or Cannellini varieties. Those who took it entered a drawing to receive an engraved legume mascot.
Every hour, Heinz picked a winner from each bean category. Winners were sent a personalised bean and every user that invited 10 people to take the quiz was given a goodie bag. Heinz also offered Facebook fans a coupon so they could try the product.
The campaign ran for two weeks and achieved impressive results:
• 22,143 took the quiz to apply for a personalised bean.
• More than 10,000 users shared the app.
• The campaign reached 10.8m people on Facebook.
• It reached 3m people reached outside of Facebook through Twitter, blogs and news sites.
• The Heinz Facebook community grew by 30,000 extra fans.
Previously, We Are Social launched another “personalized” effort for Heinz, which allowed fans to send their sick friends Heinz soups cans customised with names and get well messages of their choice.