Curtice Brothers Turns Bad Restaurant Reviews Into a Ketchup Brief
Curtice Brothers' 'Ketchup to the Rescue' is a 2022 integrated campaign created by Ogilvy Germany under WPP, launched in the German market in January 2022, that placed the brand's 100% organic ketchup inside low-rated Berlin restaurants listed on Tripadvisor to test whether the condiment could nudge their scores upward — not to culinary glory, but to basic acceptability.
The campaign centres on a deliberately modest brand promise. Rather than claiming that Curtice Brothers ketchup transforms a terrible meal into something memorable, the creative proposition holds that it can make a not-okay dish at least okay. That restraint is itself the idea. In a food industry landscape saturated with hyperbolic taste claims, the campaign found competitive ground by out-humbling every rival on the shelf. The target geography was Germany, specifically Berlin, where Tripadvisor functioned not merely as a research tool but as the primary measurement instrument for the entire activation.
The mechanics were straightforward in concept and precise in execution. Ogilvy Germany identified restaurants in Berlin carrying low Tripadvisor ratings, supplied those establishments with Curtice Brothers ketchup, and then monitored whether subsequent diner reviews reflected any improvement. Out-of-home advertising and geotargeted digital media supported the activation, turning the restaurants themselves into live proof-of-concept locations. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 76 out of 100, reflecting strong strategic coherence and an insight-led creative approach within the food and drink category.
Felipe Galiano, Creative Director at Ogilvy Berlin, identified a specific consumer insight that shaped the entire strategic architecture of the campaign. Galiano found that online public critics — ordinary diners leaving reviews on platforms such as Tripadvisor — were the most influential evaluators of food brands, more so than professional chefs or international competition judges, as reported by Muse by Clio. He stated directly: 'There is an honesty you get there that you won't find anywhere else,' and further observed that 'people have the freedom and transparency to say what they really think without any filter, and they do,' per Muse by Clio. That insight reframed Tripadvisor not as a passive reputation platform but as an active, credible testing environment for a condiment brand making realistic claims.
The strategic context for this activation sits within a growing but competitive global ketchup market. According to Grand View Research, the global tomato ketchup market was valued at approximately US $21.4 billion in 2022. In that environment, Curtice Brothers — an organic, premium-positioned brand revived in 2014 using a historical American name dating to 1868, according to baybottles.com — competes against substantially larger players. Kraft Heinz, the dominant force globally through its Heinz brand, and Conagra Brands through its Hunt's label represent the scale competitors against which a challenger brand like Curtice Brothers must find differentiated positioning. In Germany, a market with sophisticated food labelling awareness and growing organic consumption, the 100% organic credential carried genuine weight.
The campaign's strategic intelligence lies in using an existing third-party platform — one that neither the brand nor the agency controls — as the validation mechanism. This transforms Tripadvisor's review system from a potential brand liability into a performance indicator, and it does so in a way that is structurally impossible for a larger, less nimble competitor to replicate without undermining its own brand equity.
Felipe Galiano served as Creative Director on the campaign at Ogilvy Berlin, and his fingerprints are visible in the tonal discipline the work maintains throughout. Production credits beyond Galiano's role are not fully publicly documented for 'Ketchup to the Rescue,' though Ogilvy Germany is credited as the agency of record under the WPP network.
The creative execution operated across multiple channels simultaneously. Out-of-home advertising in Berlin anchored the physical presence of the campaign, while geotargeted digital media ensured that diners in proximity to the participating low-rated restaurants encountered the Curtice Brothers brand before, during, or after a visit, as documented by Clapboard. The restaurants themselves became the medium — live installations where the product's efficacy was tested under real dining conditions rather than controlled taste-testing environments. This is a meaningful creative decision. By refusing the safety of a studio or a curated food-photography aesthetic, the campaign committed fully to the authenticity of the premise.
The tonal register of the creative work is notable. Where most food and drink advertising in Germany and across the broader European market defaults to either appetite-stimulating imagery or earnest organic-food sincerity, 'Ketchup to the Rescue' adopted a voice closer to dry wit — acknowledging that some restaurants are genuinely bad, that ketchup will not fix that, and that modest improvement is a legitimate and honest brand claim. Muse by Clio described the work as a 'solid' activation, characterising the marginally improved Tripadvisor reviews that followed as entirely consistent with the campaign's restrained product promise, as reported by Muse by Clio in April 2022. That alignment between creative tone and measurable outcome is a mark of execution discipline rarely achieved in integrated food industry campaigns.
No large-scale verified performance data for 'Ketchup to the Rescue' is available through published third-party measurement sources. However, the campaign produced documented, observable outcomes within the terms it set for itself, and those outcomes are publicly attributable. According to Clapboard, one participating Berlin restaurant moved from a 'walk on by' rating to 'not the worst option' following the ketchup placement. A second establishment shifted from a 'horrible' rating to 'OKish,' and several one-star restaurants received two-star reviews after the campaign intervention, also per Clapboard. These are small movements by conventional metrics standards, but they are precisely the movements the campaign promised — and promised publicly, in advance.
That structural honesty is itself a performance story. The campaign did not claim it would turn a one-star restaurant into a four-star destination. It claimed it would make things marginally better, and it delivered marginally better results. The alignment between promise and outcome is the metric that matters most for brand credibility, particularly in the German market where consumer scepticism toward advertising claims in the food industry is well established.
Ogilvy described the campaign as 'award-winning' in its own communications, though the specific award, category, level, and year have not been publicly identified, as noted by Clapboard. No verified data placing the campaign at Cannes Lions, the Effies, D&AD, One Show, the Clios, the Webbys, or WARC Awards has been found. The campaign carries a Clapboard Score of 76 out of 100, reflecting the strength of its strategic insight, its creative restraint, and the coherent use of Tripadvisor as both medium and measurement tool within the German food and drink market.
'Ketchup to the Rescue' is a 2022 integrated campaign by Ogilvy Germany for Curtice Brothers, launched in Germany in January 2022 under WPP. It placed the brand's organic ketchup in low-rated Berlin restaurants listed on Tripadvisor to test whether the product could nudge diner review scores upward, validating a modest but honest brand promise.
Tripadvisor served as the campaign's primary measurement tool. Ogilvy Germany identified low-scoring Berlin restaurants on the platform, supplied them with Curtice Brothers ketchup, and monitored whether subsequent diner reviews improved. According to Clapboard, some one-star restaurants received two-star reviews following the intervention, consistent with the campaign's restrained promise.
Felipe Galiano served as Creative Director at Ogilvy Berlin for the campaign. As reported by Muse by Clio, Galiano identified everyday online reviewers on platforms like Tripadvisor as the most credible and influential evaluators of food brands — more so than professional chefs — and built the campaign's strategic premise around that insight.
No large-scale third-party metrics are publicly available. Per Clapboard, one participating Berlin restaurant moved from 'horrible' to 'OKish' and another from 'walk on by' to 'not the worst option.' These modest gains matched the campaign's stated promise exactly, and the work earned a Clapboard Score of 76 out of 100.
Ogilvy Germany created the 'Ketchup to the Rescue' campaign for Curtice Brothers. The campaign was produced under WPP, Ogilvy's parent network, and launched in the German market in January 2022 as an integrated food and drink activation combining out-of-home advertising, geotargeted digital media, and live restaurant placements across Berlin.
Curtice Brothers competes as a premium organic challenger against dominant players including Kraft Heinz's Heinz brand. Where Heinz competes on scale and familiarity, Curtice Brothers — revived in 2014 per baybottles.com — leans into a 100% organic credential and honest brand communication, a positioning well suited to Germany's food-label-conscious consumer base.
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