Heinz, in partnership with Druid Gaming, has launched Heinz S.O.S Tomato Island on the popular gaming platform Fortnite. The themed island tasks players with maintaining the health of a tomato farm.
The Fortnite island taps into younger consumers’ love of gaming and passion for sustainability. It positions Heinz as an environmentally conscious company. Players on the S.O.S Tomato Island have to use Heinz-supported practices, like crop rotation, cover cropping, and soil cover maintenance to grow tomatoes for ketchup production.
The game gets interesting as players have to battle “The Storm” – a battle zone that slowly shrinks the available safe area on the island. This potentially spikes interest beyond the product being promoted. The American food processing company has made concerted efforts to attract young consumers. Heinz attracted younger consumers by taking to TikTok to promote its limited-edition, Halloween-themed “Tomato Blood”. But the Fortnite island is not the brand’s first gaming-themed activation. Heinz teamed up with the company behind Call of Duty in 2021.
Geared for Sustainability
Heinz chose Fortnite as it wants to highlight its environmental efforts in Gen Z and Gen Alpha categories. It has made sustainability its focus. In 2020, Heinz said the company would be making a conscious effort to increase its sustainable farming practices, and in August, in the same year, showcased a vintage line of ketchup-stained clothing to celebrate sustainable clothing.
In 2018, Heinz declared to make 100 percent of its packaging globally recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. This complemented the brand’s “Growing a Better World” strategy, and supports the company’s broader efforts to improve the sustainability of its supply chain.
