Kraft Heinz and The Walt Disney Company have announced a long-term strategic marketing partnership that goes well beyond a simple ad tie-in. It's built as a broad alliance spanning integrated campaigns, digital content, and a range of branded opportunities.
The partnership covers Disney's touchpoints across North America — theme parks and resorts, cruise lines, studios and streaming, and live events. On the Kraft Heinz side, ten brands are involved, including Heinz, Philadelphia, and Kraft Mac & Cheese.
The 360-degree launch campaign, "Together at Last," was created by agency Rethink and runs across video, social, and digital. Its centerpiece film, "Meant to be Together," fuses the two brands' visual assets directly: shadows from Kraft Heinz products form the silhouette of Cinderella Castle, ketchup traces the outline of Mickey Mouse, and Jet-Puffed marshmallows assemble into Frozen's Olaf.
The partnership extends offline too. New Heinz sauce stations are being installed across Disney parks, and an activation called the "Heinz Flavor Ferry" runs at D23, the Disney fan event in Anaheim, California, from August 14–16, with the first 570 attendees each day receiving a limited-edition pin.
This partnership lands inside a broader Kraft Heinz turnaround strategy. The company has paused a planned corporate split and increased Q1 2026 marketing spend 37% year over year, with global ROAS improving 8 percentage points. It follows other recent moves including an NFL partnership and an America250 campaign tied to the 250th anniversary of American independence.
The real lesson here is mutual translation of brand assets. Drawing Mickey in ketchup and building Olaf from marshmallows shows two brands weaving into a single narrative without diluting either identity — a different order of sophistication from the shallow "logo next to logo" co-marketing that's common in joint campaigns. Whether a partner's iconic assets can be reinterpreted in your own product's visual language is what separates a real collaboration from a sponsorship slide.
Just as notably, this is a textbook omnichannel design — media, parks, cruises, and events tied into one ecosystem of touchpoints, connecting online campaigns to offline experience. That Kraft Heinz chose to increase marketing spend by 37% during a turnaround period, and can point to ROAS improvement as proof, is itself a strategic signal: in an uncertain market, a large-scale partnership can be a better lever than defensive cost-cutting. Brands considering a similar co-branded push can look at Best Partner's brand strategy services or review portfolio examples of integrated campaign work.
It's a long-term strategic marketing alliance spanning Disney's theme parks, cruise lines, studios, streaming platforms, and events across North America, involving ten Kraft Heinz brands including Heinz, Philadelphia, and Kraft Mac & Cheese.
The launch is a 360-degree campaign called "Together at Last," created by Rethink, whose centerpiece film fuses each brand's visual assets — such as ketchup forming Mickey Mouse's silhouette and marshmallows assembling into Olaf — rather than simply pairing two logos.
New Heinz sauce stations are being added across Disney parks, and a "Heinz Flavor Ferry" activation runs at the D23 fan event in Anaheim from August 14–16, giving the first 570 daily attendees a limited-edition pin.
It coincides with a broader turnaround strategy: the company paused a planned corporate split, raised Q1 2026 marketing spend 37% year over year, improved global ROAS by 8 points, and has layered on other high-profile partnerships like the NFL and America250 campaigns.
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