From Can to Heritage: The Feat of the Encebollado

Encebollado—a traditional fish, onion, and tomato soup—is Ecuador’s beloved national dish, and Encebollado Real has long been the market leader of its convenient, tinned version. However, the brand was facing a crisis. An aggressive new competitor had entered the space, triggering a 35% slump in Encebollado Real's sales and dropping its market share to 72.5%.

Worse still, the entire tinned encebollado category was losing its soul. Total category sales had plummeted by 12.7% as consumers increasingly dismissed the canned version as an "inferior substitute" to the fresh dish.

Our challenge was to reverse this steep decline, fend off the competition, and reignite a deep emotional connection between the Ecuadorian people and their national dish.

We realized that while Ecuadorians loved encebollado, they didn't believe their culinary staple was worthy of global or historical recognition. We decided to stop selling a canned product and start defending a legacy. Our strategy was to elevate encebollado to the same cultural status as the Galápagos Islands or the center of Quito.

We launched the #EncebolladoPatrimonio movement: a nationwide quest to have the dish officially declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Ecuador.

We rolled out the campaign in three phases:

• The Manifesto: We broadcasted an emotional manifesto across TV, social, and print, comparing encebollado to Ecuador's greatest heritage icons to generate awareness and civic pride.

• The Movement: We mobilized the public for six months, establishing an "International Encebollado Day" on January 1st. We sent an "Encebollado Caravan" touring across the country, turning stops into popular assemblies and gathering over 15,000 signatures on paper placemats.

• The Formalization: We partnered with historians to document the dish's legacy, producing a documentary that was permanently integrated into the Guayaquil Municipal Museum. Armed with this evidence and public support, we officially submitted our ICH application to the Ministry of Culture.

We achieved a historic cultural victory: encebollado was officially declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ecuador. By championing national pride, we successfully transformed the perception of the tinned soup from a soulless substitute to a practical tribute to a national symbol.

The cultural triumph ignited a massive commercial resurrection:

• Sales Growth: Encebollado Real achieved a staggering 66.6% growth in sales, completely reversing the previous 35% decline and defending its market leadership.

• Category Revival: Total sales of tinned encebollado across the category skyrocketed by 67.9% in volume.

• Engagement: In a country of 18.3 million people, the campaign generated nearly 44 million impressions, approx. 4 million interactions, and 2.6 million video completions.