Kraft Heinz has a product lineup with the type of brand recognition other marketers envy. The problem is, while the food company was busy overhauling itself, many of those well-known brands such as Oscar Mayer weren’t getting too much attention. 

Now, Kraft Heinz is recommitting to brand love, planning to spend $100 million more on marketing than it did in 2019, and giving 80% of its brands a bit of a renovation during the next 18 months, Jess Vultaggio, head of strategy and development for the meal foundations and coffee unit at Kraft Heinz, says on the latest episode of the “Marketer’s Brief” podcast.

“We were an organization that was conservative creatively and, I think, very traditional in our media plans,” she says.

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In early 2019, Kraft Heinz took a $15.4 billion write-down on its assets, including its storied Kraft and Oscar Mayer trademarks. 

Now, the company is taking more risks and inserting its brands into cultural moments, including Oscar Mayer playing off of Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos traveling to space last month on social media.

Looking at brands that are well over a century old, including Oscar Mayer and Philadelphia, “we just sometimes think of them as brands that became sort of dusty over time,” says Vultaggio. “They’re well taken care of but they haven’t really been polished up or dressed up for the world today.”

Oscar Mayer is the first major brand to get its renovation underway. In April, the packaged meat brand introduced the “Keep it Oscar” campaign from Johannes Leonardo. The brand is also now featuring a new retro-meets-modern design from BrandOpus for the packaging across its three categories: bacon, cold cuts and hot dogs.

“It was sort of seen as a brand that had not evolved with the consumer,” says Vultaggio. 

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Now, it is leaning into levity and nostalgia for the brand, including its Wienermobile, with ads that look at the world “through meat-colored glasses,” she says. It’s focusing on winning with the consumers who already love the brand and so-called “fence-sitters” and consciously choosing not to try to win over the haters, says Vultaggio. 

“We recognized that we were not going to be for everyone,” Vultaggio says.

Ads in the campaign include a commercial in which a girl watching her mom prepare an Oscar Mayer hot dog grills it with lasers shooting from her eyes. 

The spot from Johannes Leonardo was directed by Kyle Sauer out of production company Neighborhood Watch.

Kraft macaroni and cheese has also done some unique campaigns, such as last year’s humor-meets-suggestive “Send Noods” work from Mischief @ No Fixed Address and last month’s mac and cheese-flavored ice cream collaboration with Van Leeuwen.

Hear more from Vultaggio in the link above.