Recipes Recipes Recipes
July 2, 2010 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
For brands looking to influence grocery buyers online, there are two real options.
The first is the spray and pray method, derived from a military term for not aiming, but firing in the general direction. The best illustration of this is where brands book say the home page of a portal for a day. Apart from reaching just the household grocery buyer, you reach the father, son, daughter, grand father, social gamer, automotive enthusiast and technophile. Not really the best form of efficiently if you’re trying to reach the grocery buyer.
The second method is to work with a media company, such as Gourmet Ads who not only understands how to reach the grocery buyer online, but specializes in reaching the grocery buyer online. When you start targeting a niche like the grocery buyer, sure the reach isn’t anywhere near as huge, but the upside is the spend is less and the media is much more efficient than reaching everyone on the internet.
Why do we know how to reach the grocery buyer online? Easy. Over the past few years we’ve developed a vast community of recipe sites, and we’ve worked hard to ensure that our ads run close or nearby recipes online. This is where meal decisions are made and grocery shopping lists are developed.
Because reaching grocery buyers online is all we do their isn’t any deviation from the focus. Sure we have a strong female demographic, but we don’t have lifestyle sites, beauty sites or gossip, we only do food and more specially recipes online. This is great if you’re marketing food products with the aim of increasing sales.
So if you’re responsible for booking campaigns aimed at reaching the grocery buyer online, then Download our Media Kit or Request a Proposal from our team.
Most Popular for 2009
December 31, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
As we roll onto 2010 or “Twenty Ten” as many are calling it, I though it might be good to take a quick look back to some of the most popular blogs we wrote this year. Just like 2009, during 2010 we’ll try to write as many blogs as we can helping to educate advertisers, media buyers and owners on how to advertise online and reach your target audience.
So here we go…..
- 2010 Advertising Trends
- Targeting Grocery Buyers
- Online Drives CPG Sales
- Reaching Holiday Shoppers
- Grocery Store Loyalty Programs
- Display Ads Trigger Search
- Reaching Working Moms
- Creative Advertising
- More Cooking at Home
- Increasing Click Through Rates
- Interstitial Advertising
Maybe you had a favourite blog ?
2010 Advertising Trends
November 20, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 8 Comments
Last year we wrote a blog called 2009 Advertising Trends where we looked gave a somewhat forecast of what we thought the trends would be. Some things we got right, others we didn’t. Certainly 2009 for most advertising companies is a year they’d rather put behind them.
So looking forward into next year, we thought we should but together a list again, this time with our 2010 advertising trends we think will happen in 2010. Some are from foundations of things that we’ve seen in mid to late 2009, others are purely speculative.
Any way we’d like to get your thoughts and comments on our 2010 Advertising Trends predictions. Because its 2010 we thought 10 would be a good number to start with, so here they are;
1. Media Buying via Vertical Ad Networks
We saw during 2009 a great deal of media buyers and media planners starting to include more vertical advertising networks into their client media plans. There is no question that Vertical Ad networks are an efficient means to reach niche audiences. So we believe that this trend will continue into 2010 and beyond. The key for all vertical ad networks (including us here at Gourmet Ads) is to ensure that we continue to deliver value for money on premium sites, whilst ensuring we provide quality audiences, reach and creative execution for all media buys.
2. Increased Online Media Spending
We’ve already seeing an increase in the budgets for 2010 RFP’s during Q4 in 2009. Companies and their advertising agencies that were only doing short term media buying are already asking for 12 month plans for 2010. We believe that as companies continue to reduce their TV, Radio and Print budgets they’ll be seeking to reach consumers online where the metrics can be measured. We’ve even heard from food companies that previously didn’t have an online strategy hiring digital teams and/or digital agencies.
3. Pre Roll Video
During 2009 we had a lot of agency folks indicate they were testing various video formats for clients. Some tested in-unit video, standalone video, pre roll, mid roll, post roll and video on interstitials. Agencies are now indicating that what is working for them is pre roll video and preferably with a companion ad. So we expect during 2010 that we’ll see increased demand for pre roll video inventory.
4.Increased spending by FMCG & CPG
This was a key advertising trend prediction last year and we’ve started to see this happen. Although some campaigns I question the messaging and creative, but overall many of the large FMCG / CPG companies are now actively spending online and consistently from month to month. We’re predicting we’ll see a raft of small to mid sized companies move to online in 2010 where they can easily compete with large FMCG / CPG companies, possibly on a localised / geo targeted basis.
5. Beyond the Banner / Non IAB Sizes
Throughout 2009 the buzz word on nearly every RFP was “Beyond the Banner” and we don’t think this will change as we head into 2010. We believe that advertisers will be asking for more Non IAB units as part of campaigns from simple logos to standalone rich media. So what kind of Beyond the Banner / Non IAB Sizes solutions excite advertisers? Try changeable backgrounds, recipes integrations, brand integrations and widgets to name a few. Additionally we’ll see these booked for longer periods such as 12 months or at least by the quarter.
6. Behavioral Targeting & Retargeting
If you’re at Adtech New York recently you would have noticed the vast amount of companies offering both Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting solutions. I even heard of one company that said vertical networks don’t have to have recruit publishers just gain access to pixels on people’s computers! We’re running more and more long term campaigns which include Behavioral Targeting of some sort. They are great for ecommerce sites and anywhere where conversions are critical. and we expect this advertising trend to continue well into 2010 and beyond.
7. CPM rates increase
We’re already seeing CPM rates increase in Q3 and Q4 2009. CPM rates for the most part are back at sensible levels compared to early 2009 when they were extremely under valued. Major publisher had to significantly discount. Although some markets are taking longer to recover than others, CPM rates across the globe are certainly increasing or are stable.
8. Interstitial Advertising
We touched on this above under Beyond the Banner / Non IAB Sizes. As brands are looking for higher visibility in more non IAB units, Interstitials are a great way to deliver them and we believe that during 2010 more advertisers will be requesting them. They’ve been the secret for many direct response advertisers for sometime because of their high click through rates as well as engagement rates. Its not always inbound interstitials, some of our publishers who provide gateway content are offering outbound interstitials. Finally, don’t just expect to see static or rich media on Interstitials. We expect to see more 10 and 15 second video being used on Interstitials as advertisers look at more high profile avenues to engage with audiences.
9. More Coupon based Campaigns
Given the economic climate of 2009 we saw a great deal of brand campaigns which include some sort of discount coupon. For the most part these Coupon based campaigns have performed extremely well and we expect this advertising trend to continue in 2010. The majority of coupon campaigns have been run by large food companies, however we believe that in 2010 we’ll see smaller food companies and even wine companies using these sort of tactics to drive sales. Expect to see even more and more ecommerce sites using this tactic to drive sales.
10. Gourmet Ads will be the largest Food Network globally
Obviously as I’m in the driving seat, I can say with confidence that Gourmet Ads will continue to grow in our key markets of America, UK, Canada and Australia. Apart from this we’ll also start to see other markets emerge in Europe and Asia. We’ll continue to recruit quality publishers with fantastic audiences ensuring that campaigns perform.
We’d love to get your feedback on some of our 2010 Advertising Trends. So feel free to leave a comment.
Targeting Grocery Buyers
September 3, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
We recently wrote a blog called Online Drives CPG Sales which was inspired by a Comscore study which found that online advertising can be as effective as television advertising in lifting retail sales of CPG brands. The study indicated that online advertising lifted retail sales of CPG brands by an average of 9% compared to 8% for TV advertising. With more CPGs moving online with increased budgets I thought it might be good to talk about how Gourmet Ads targets Grocery buyers, as well as where they actually do their grocery buying.
First off, here’s a little about the Gourmet Audience in regards to the grocery buying;
- They are the primary household grocery buyer
- They make more than 3 trips to the grocery store each month
- They spend anywhere from $200 to over $500 a month on groceries
- They search for food products online such as gourmet and organic
What are they buying?
Across a range of products, our Grocery Buying audience are typically buying week to week the following food products; Baby Foods, Carbonated Soft Drinks, Carbonated Water, Cereals, Cheese, Crackers, Dairy products, Dried Pasta, Juice, Gourmet Frozen Meals, Pizzas Frozen and Packaged Meats. Apart from foods, also high on the list are baby products such as diapers, baby formula as well as pet related products such as pet food and cat litter.
Where do they shop?
Some of our Grocery Buying audience are shopping online, but the vast majority are heading to the grocery store and placing products in the shopping trolley. They are heading to Albertsons, Aldi, Bi-lo, Food Emporium, Food Lion, IGA, Kroger, Lowes Foods, Pathmark, Pick’n Save, Publix, Ralph’s and Safeway to name a few.
So what are the takeaways from this ?
There is no doubt that the Gourmet Ads audience spends on groceries multiple times a month across a range of products (food and non-food) and grocery/supermarkets. Add to this they are also very active online researching food products such as gourmet and organic.
So if you’re a grocery store / supermarket, then running campaigns with Gourmet Ads to drive our audience to your store makes sense. You can run campaigns such as discounts, this week’s specials and more. For those advertising food products, its about building brand awareness prior to the trip to the grocery store / supermarket. You could use discount coupons or promotions to influence our audience to buy your products.
If you’re tasked with marketing to Grocery Buyers, then download our media kit, or request a proposal for your next online campaign.
Online Drives CPG Sales
August 28, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Last week the leading research house Comscore released a study indicating what many in the online advertising space have believed for sometime, that online advertising can be as effective as television advertising in lifting retail sales of CPG brands.
The Comscore study, based on a 200,000 panel of consumers who were members of grocery store loyalty programs, indicated that online advertising lifts retail sales of CPG products by an average of 9%, compared to an average lift of about 8% from TV campaigns (measured by Information Resources, Inc). Advertising campaigns for brands in a variety of CPG product categories, including cereal, cookie mixes, pizza, juice drinks, snack bars, pasta, tea, deodorants and toothpaste, were examined.
From what we understand the CPG Sales study not only tracked online behavior, but actual purchases at the grocery store, providing some of the best evidence from online to cash register that we’ve seen. Now there’s proof that Online Drives CPG Sales.
Unlike TV which can really only be limited to location and placement, online advertising provides a raft of targeting options. Apart from standard campaign targeting options, Gourmet Ads provides additional targeting such as Behavioral Targeting and Retargeting which hones in on the target audience which can provide exceptional results for advertisers.
Given that the Gourmet Ads network only runs advertising on approved, editorial selected recipes sites and food blogs we are always targeting the household grocery buyer each and everyday.
Some of the takeaways from this research for CPG markets are;
- Online Advertising is typically less expensive to TV Advertising
- Online Advertising outperforms TV Advertising
- Greater campaign targeting options available for online
- Gourmet Ads reaches the main household grocery buyers each and everyday
- Reach audiences when they are learning and research family meal ideas.
- Measurable performance
If you’re tasked with marketing your CPG products, then download our media kit, or request a proposal for your next CPG product campaign.
Source: http://ir.comscore.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=403695
More Cooking at Home
August 15, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
The recession has certainly changed the behavior of consumers greatly when it comes to cooking at home. A recent study by Zagat survey confirms that since the economic downturn, 61 percent of those surveyed say they’re cooking dinner at home more than before. Not surprisingly, only 1 percent of the respondents said they’re cooking less. Although this study was specifically into the eating habits of New Yorkers, the increased trend of cooking at home is no doubt widespread across the nation as people cook to save money. There is no doubt that less people are eating out at restaurants in order to save money. With more cooking at home, I thought I’d look at who is benefiting from this trend as well as how companies with the most to reap can interact and engage with consumers online.
Supermarkets, Grocery Store and even Gourmet providores are seeing the benefits of people eating in. Many supermarkets are now printing recipes ideas as soon as you enter the supermarket in order to help consumers choose something for dinner. Companies that market core ingredients have the most to benefit, which is why nearly every supermarket has developed their own brand of private label products. One supermarket has even developed two of their own private label brands; one which is cheap and the other a little more gourmet proving consumers a real choice.
So supermarkets and grocery stores have a real opportunity to expand their consumer base during the economic downturn. One such strategy to increase market share would be to run a campaign with a CRM focus asking consumers for their contact details including email address. Then supermarkets and grocery stores could run a series of email campaigns sending weekly catalogs, discount vouchers or any other special offers. Alternatively they could send a weekly newsletter with ideas of what can be cooked this coming week with links to the shopping list making it super simple for consumers to go to the store and buy the ingredients.
The other major industries to see growth from the downturn in eating out, is both kitchen appliance manufacturers and companies that make and sell kitchen accessories or cookware. I recently was talking with a company that sells a $1000 kitchen appliance. They indicated that they are nearly selling double the about of individual units than they were last year. Another manufacturer who makes a kitchen appliance for around the $100 is also seeing product sales increase. This illustrates how people still have money, but are looking longer term than just months with them prepared to invest in new kitchen appliances in order to save money.
For any company selling kitchen appliances, the key to educating consumers on how to use their products is via recipes. One such strategy for online campaigns would be via a branded recipe widget which allows people to search for recipes which can be made with their products. People eat with their eyes, so making sure every recipes has a image is key to the success of any recipe based marketing program.
So if you’re tasked with increase consumers to your supermarket / grocery store or are tasked at selling more kitchen appliances, now is the time to develop an advertising campaign to take advantage of the trend of more cooking at home. Gourmet Ads can certainly help you develop either short term advertising campaigns or long multi month campaigns to hit your sales and revenue targets. For more information, download our media kit or request a proposal from us.
Mr Household Grocery Buyer
August 4, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
This month Nielsen Consumer Insight published an article called “Role Reversal – Mr. Mom Goes Shopping”. The article is about how the household has changed and traditional roles have shifted with men now taking on a greater percentage of the household shopping than in the past. Today, almost one-third of men are now the principal shoppers in the home.
For any companies which advertise and sell products in supermarkets, there are some interesting statistics to be learnt. First off the percentage of female vs male grocery buyers is 61% female and 39% male. This is strikingly similar to our own sex demographic breakdown for the Gourmet Ads network which is 62% female and 38% male, indicating how inline our audience is with industry research.
Even though men have increasingly becoming the principal shoppers in the home, women continue to outspend men per trip across all retail channels. The article comments that this is due to women conducting more “planned” shopping trips than men.
So you’re probably thinking that men are stacking their shopping baskets full of beer, BBQ product and men’s health products like shaving creams and deodorants. However this is far from the case. Across the board, men are buying for the entire household and here is just a snapshot of what they are typically buying;
- Canned Seafood (61%)
- Refrigerated Juices, Drinks (61%)
- Prepared Food-Ready-to Serve Stew (59%)
- Herbal Package Tea (57%)
- Prepared Food-Ready-to Serve Lasagna (55%)
- Health Bars & Sticks (54%)
- Non-Sliced Refrigerated Lunch Meat (53%)
- Refrigerated Yogurt and Shakes (52%)
- Dishwasher Rinsing Aids (52%)
I think there are three main takeaways from this research.
1. Online Media Buying
When buying online media, ensure that you are buying a network which reaches the main household grocery buyer and has a similar percentage of women to men as indicated in the article (like Gourmet Ads network). If you were buying a women’s only advertising network you could be missing the male grocery buyer which is at least 35% of the market.
2. Creative Design
Like the first point in regards to media buying, you need to ensure your online advertising creative isn’t just targeted to women only, but yet appeals to both sexes. Otherwise you’ll be missing out on clicks from potential grocery buyers who are men.
3. Packaging & Branding
Once again with both women and men most likely to buy your products, it’s essential for the branding and packaging to appeal to both sexes and not just typically women.
Source:
http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/insights/consumer_insight/July_2009/role_reversal_mr_mom
Food Advertising Ideas
August 1, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
A while ago we wrote a blog on Wine Advertising Ideas which was aimed at smaller wineries, wine companies and pretty much anyone who was tasked with marketing and advertising wines. To date the blog is in our top ten blogs of all time. So now its time for a blog on Food Advertising Ideas, and like the wine blog this one is aimed at small to medium sized food businesses as well as multinationals which are yet to start advertising online.
So if you’re in do food marketing or food advertising this blog will give you some food advertising ideas which lay as the foundation for any advertising campaigns you plan to run.
- Brand Advertising
Mostly undertaken by large food companies is brand advertising. This is where the message is simply the brand and is created to engage the user and provide brand awareness so your product stands out on the shelf. Some of the key messages when advertising food brands is why your product is different, the places you can buy it and price if appropriate. - Product Based Campaigns
Say you’ve got a number of products that you retail. Well choose 12 products that you want to start advertising and every month focus on running a campaign for a different product. Keep in mind seasonality of the products, ie there is no point promoting winter soups in the middle of summer. The key here is to develop new creative every month. Additionally and from a media buying perspective clients that book 12 months of media with Gourmet Ads can receive significantly discounted CPM rates opposed to spot buys. - Acquisition Campaign
Taking a very direct marketing approach, running an acquisition campaign every other month with large reach to your target audience is one way that you can acquire new emails. Considered by some as a CRM campaign, once you’ve acquired a reasonable amount of email contacts, you can start emailing them directly. - Campaigns Advertising Competitions
This could be the under lying strategy for your Acquisition Campaign, but competitions are an excellent method of building brand awareness and building your email database. The key here is to offer a “great prize” opposed to just a prize. Consumers want to win something great. We’ve recently run a competition to have a celebrity chef cook in your house for the night which has attracted literally thousands of entires and isn’t really related to the brand being advertised. - Recipe Widgets
No matter what your food product, consumers love learning how to use your product in everyday cooking. So a widget featuring your recipes which use your food products can be very engaging to an audience which is looking for recipes. These simple rich media units are typically 300 x 250 island ad units and we traffic them to sites within our network. We can track engagements, displays, click throughs etc just like a regular ad unit. – Learn more about Recipe Widgets here. - Retailer Advertising Campaign
Telling your consumers where they can buy your products is very important, it’s the reason why you’ve probably got a long list of them on your website called “Where to Buy”. Have you ever thought about a co-promotion with the retailer to drive sales in-store? Your advertising could drive people to a landing page which told people of the offer or allowed them to print a coupon to get the discount. What ever the offer is, both you and the retailer benefit which is why you could share the advertising costs with them allowing you reach a great number of consumers. - TVC Campaigns Online
Taking your television commercial and simply repurposing for online can be a great way to further expand the reach of your campaign. Either formatted into a 300 x 250 ad unit, standalone video player or interstitial page, your video can make an impact. - Online Food Companies (Ecommerce)
Although many food companies sell their products through supermarkets, grocery stores of gourmet retailers, there are a great deal of food companies that only sell online. So for online food companies when it’s all about generating a sale online, we can provide a raft of solutions to generate sales. From wide reaching media to highly targeted Behavioural targeting campaigns, we can target your advertising to you most likely customer.
So no matter what the focus for your food advertising campaign, Gourmet Ads can deliver. For more Food Advertising Ideas, download our media kit or Request a Proposal from us.
Memorial Day Weekend Advertising
March 19, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
The US Memorial Day Weekend flags the start of summer and the start of BBQ and Grilling season. In backyards across America, barbeques and grills are fired up for the first time after the winter chill. For those in the BBQ business it makes sense to undertake Memorial Day Weekend Advertising to drive sales of products.
Ideally your Memorial Day Weekend Advertising should start early to mid May generating branding and consumer interest initially, then gearing up for increased activity to the few days prior to the Memorial Day Weekend. Roadblock Advertising and Over the Page Advertising campaigns should also be considered over the Memorial Day Weekend days to help drive sales.
Highly focused at men, some of the products ideal for promoting over the Memorial Day Weekend include;
• BBQs and Grills
• Charcoal / Wood
• Lighter fuel
• Grilling utensils and accessories
• Steaks / Seafood
• BBQ Sauce / Hot Sauce
• Marinates
• Beer and Spirits
Your Memorial Day Weekend Advertising doesn’t have to be just about barbeques and grilling, there is also significant opportunities to target women with outdoor related products such as outdoor settings, tablecloths, BBQ crockery as well as specific ingredients like salad products, dressings and mustard.
Lastly and essential to every backyard barbeque on Memorial Day Weekend is wine. This is a great opportunity for a wine brand to do heavy advertising activity at the start of the season to make their wine the must have for every BBQ. By positioning your white or red wine as the essential BBQ wine, it will immediately become the must have for each and every BBQ. Make an impression here at the beginning of summer and consumers will use your wine throughout the entire summer period ensuring multi-month sales.
If you’d like to explore some of our advertising options forMemorial Day Weekend,start by downloading the Gourmet Ads Media Kit or by Requesting a Proposal from us.
Advertising Private Label Brands
February 27, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
As the economy crisis begins to worsen, supermarket home brands, often known as private label brands are rapidly growing in popularity with consumers. This is primarily due to private label brands being generally priced cheaper than the branded product lines. However a contributor to the growth is because private label brands are owned by the supermarket, they don’t have to pay listing fees and because of this they get great shelf locations right in front of shoppers.
In many cases the companies which manufacture the branded products also produce the private label branded products, however many shoppers consider private label brands as being cheap and nasty, and don’t buy them because of the quality. So although sales of private labels have increased, generally they haven’t penetrated the mid to higher end of the market at all.
Some private labels only advertise in store or in catalogs, but if private label brands what to see continued growth into new markets they really need to look at non house advertising channels which reach gourmet shoppers, such as Gourmet Ads. Private labels also need to communicate to target markets with different advertising messages. So to a low socioeconomic market the advertising message has to be about quality for the price. Whereas, to a higher socioeconomic segment that usually purchases the branded product, they need to position the private label brand in comparison to the quality product. Make the messaging in the advertising compare the quality of the branded to the private label.
If supermarkets and grocery stores want their private label brands to continue to grow, they need to advertise their private label brand like their own brand. It’s just as important.
So how does a supermarket with a private label brand market to a higher socioeconomic demographic or gourmet consumer? Easy, via the Gourmet Ads network. Because we reach the mid tail of the Internet, we reach a different consumer that you would find via print, TV or radio. Besides, before consumers head to the supermarket they often research possible recipes online. A media buy through Gourmet Ads is smart because we’re about getting your product brand on the shopping list making a sale in store guaranteed. Its all about reaching the main grocery buyer and creating a compelling reason for them to buy.
Contact us for more information or request a proposal from Gourmet Ads here.
