Kraft Heinz’s “Grilling Hall of Flavor” spreads brand awareness by honoring the cookout’s best MVPs

Humans have long sought to preserve their greatest accomplishments. For hundreds of years, masterpieces from Michelangelo and da Vinci have adorned the halls of museums. Visitors have admired wonders like the Egyptian pyramids and the Great Wall of China. And this year, Kraft Heinz worked with the Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab to canonize another cultural icon: the great American cookout.

In collaboration with the Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab, Kraft Heinz wanted to highlight some of their most recognizable products, bring attention to their storied brand, and capture the essence of the Kraft Heinz story. What resulted was the “Grilling Hall of Flavor,” a multifaceted campaign that aimed to pay homage to the most valuable players of the summertime cookout: the hot dogs, ketchup, mustard, and other fixings that bring the best of Americana right to our fingertips (then our mouths).

On June 14, Kraft Heinz launched a special landing page on Amazon.com titled “Grilling Hall of Flavor.” Upon clicking the page, customers entered the technicolor “curated museum,” featuring fun facts about some of Kraft Heinz’s most recognizable products, recipes for customers to incorporate into their own summer barbecue, and, of course, calls to action that allowed customers to add Kraft Heinz products to their Amazon Fresh cart without having to leave the landing page. The landing page also featured a promotion: If customers spent $25 in Kraft Heinz products featured on the page, their cart would include a $5 discount.

“First and foremost, we hoped to be able to provide recipe inspiration and summer hosting confidence with a one-click solution for their summer grilling needs,” says Taylor Douglas, senior marketing manager at the Kraft Heinz Company. “Secondly, we wanted to position the Kraft Heinz portfolio of products as the quintessential summer flavors.” Some of those summer flavors on display include yellow mustard, ketchup, and, of course, an American cheese single.

The campaign ran for two months, beginning in mid-June, and was supported by three in-person activations at Amazon Fresh stores in Bloomingdale, Illinois; Naperville, Illinois; and Huntington Beach, California. At those events, glass boxes encased Kraft Heinz’s hero products, in the same way a customer might see a piece of prized art displayed in a museum. In addition to the exhibits featuring Kraft Heinz products, customers were encouraged to try samples of the products and even snap a quick photo with the newly rebranded Frankmobile (formerly known as Wienermobile).

As for which element of the campaign worked best, the team at Kraft Heinz says they’re split between two facets. “I loved the in-store activation because I felt that it was an opportunity to truly engage with our consumers in ways we have not done before,” Douglas says. “But I also loved the brand Store because it really did such a great job of creating an immersive experience that mimicked what consumers would see in real life at the in-store pop-up. The two together really represented the power and effectiveness of a truly omnichannel activation.”

The conclusion of the summer also comes the end of the Grilling Hall of Flavor campaign, but as any historian of culture and innovation knows, humanity is responsible for carrying its most important stories forward. Thanks to the Grilling Hall of Flavor, the products featured in the campaign will be on the lips of Americans well past the summer barbecue season.