Food Ad Network Will Grow Site’s Content, Already 1.7 Million Recipes Strong

Food advertising network Gourmet Ads today announced it has acquired RecipeBridge, the leading recipe search engine, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will give Gourmet Ads’ legion of content consumers access to RecipeBridge’s more than 1.7 million dishes from over 350 recipe sites.

RecipeBridge (www.recipebridge.com), founded by Milwaukee, Wisc.-based GroupHigh, is a contextual search engine that lets cooks search by food type, recipe name, ingredients, keywords, and even by special diet. A simple search of “chicken,” for example, will bring up more than 131,000 chicken recipes, which can then be refined in order to locate the perfect dish.

“Our goal is to build the largest recipe search engine, combining recipe sites, blogs, food brands and supermarkets into one destination,” said Benjamin Christie, founder and managing director of Gourmet Ads. “RecipeBridge will provide home cooks the ability to find the perfect recipe quickly and easily, no matter where on the Internet it’s located.”

Gourmet Ads will begin investing in RecipeBridge immediately, both from a content aggregation perspective as well as developing new consumer-focused features for the site. Online recipe publishers can add their sites to the search engine via a simple submission page.

Not only will this help home cooks find the best recipes from around the world, but publishers will also benefit since RecipeBridge will send cooks directly to their sites.

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Gourmet Ads Acquires RecipeBridge is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Advertising Recipes Guides provide Grocery Buyers Meal Inspiration

Today’s grocery consumer is looking for more than just ingredients – they are looking for inspiration. That’s why many companies have found success with using recipe ideas to market their products. While the idea of printing recipes on the packaging of everyday staple products has been around for many years, more companies are using recipe booklets to give customers more ways to make use of their favorite products. The state of the economy and the growing popularity of television and celebrity chefs have created a dramatic increase in the number of consumers who are choosing to stay home and cook. Even more surprising is the number of shoppers who pick out their dinner ideas based on a favorite ingredient, rather than creating a meal around existing ingredients. Whether you want to bring new customers to your product or are just looking for an exciting new marketing strategy, consider using recipe guides in your next campaign.

The first step is deciding what to include in your recipe guide. While this is a simple step for staple-type ingredients that can be included as a part of many different recipes, but even ready-to-eat food companies can use recipe guides to expand their product line. For example, you may want to create a recipe guide that includes ideas for dishes that compliment your product. Your recipe guide should include images that help build brand awareness and show off your product- for example, a holiday recipe guide should help sell the experience of enjoying your product in the context of family gatherings rather than just marketing the product itself.

“Some of the best performing advertising campaigns run on Gourmet Ads have included recipe guides as part of the call to action”, Benjamin Christie, Founder, Gourmet Ads.

The next step is getting your recipe guide into the hands of shoppers. Traditional methods include in-store displays, demonstrations, and flyers, but the age of electronic marketing provides more opportunities than ever. One way that Gourmet Ads can help you get the most out of your recipe guide is by offering it as an online give away. Advertising Recipes is easy. Gourmet Ads will design an advertising marketing program driving grocery buyers back to your website where they provide their name and address in order to receive a printed recipe guide. This simple strategy is a great way to build brand awareness and loyalty among customers looking for the perfect recipe for their next family meal. Your company benefits by creating a database of grocery buyer willing to receive information and even coupons for your product as well as providing information that will drive customers to buy your product.

Advertising Recipes for Niche Food Companies is Essential

Remember that recipe guides aren’t just for mainstream food companies. The demand among niche food products is growing quickly as more people are looking for recipes that satisfy their demand for specific dietary needs. If your company offers items that are gluten free, allergen free, or designed for any specific need, a recipe guide is a great way to build awareness and drive customers to your website to find out more. Even non-food companies such as appliance and cookware makers can benefit by developing and advertising recipes guides using your products.

Advertising Recipes Guides is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Where do consumers find New Recipe Ideas

The search for new recipe ideas that will feed a family is a constant battle for many at home cooks. Online surveys have found that there is a dedicated group of such people that look for new recipes, new products, and new ways to cook foods using a number of online sources. Studies found that this group, which is comprised primarily of people who are the primary grocery purchasers and cooks in the home, are often interested in foods and products that offer health benefits, are cost effective, and can be prepared in a reasonably fast manner. These internet users are the very audience that food advertisers are targeting, and by understanding what customers are looking for, advertisers can create marketing plans that target these needs.

The primary way that food producers and retailers can take advantage of home cooks’ search for new recipe ideas is by offering them recipes directly within advertising. While the most important tool for providing these internet users with new recipes is the internet, marketing strategies that provide new recipe ideas through in-store advertising displays, by traditional mail, or other media are also effective. For internet users, shoppers report that they are most likely to click on advertisements that offer either a coupon for a specific item or a recipe or recipes that they are interested in. Convincing a website visitor to click on a link that brings them to a food producer’s website can be a challenge, so understanding that customers are more likely to click on links that offer recipe ideas is a great way to improve the chances that a customer will visit a website.

Another way that food industry manufacturers can take advantage of this knowledge is by including a website address that offers new recipe ideas in their other advertising. This can include television or radio advertisements that direct customers to a website that offers product coupons and recipes, or adding the website address to coupons, printed ads, and in-store displays or even product packaging. As consumers are increasingly drawn to search for new recipe ideas online, making sure your customers know that you offer this information is vital.

Are you developing New Recipe Ideas for Consumers ?

The difficulty of getting consumers to read emails from manufacturers is well known. Many customers simply delete emails without reading them, even after they have signed up to receive those same emails. However, by including new recipe ideas in the email, consumers are more likely to open and read the email. Combining recipe ideas with information about new products or specials is a good way to get shoppers interested in finding out more about a product.

As manufacturers learn about the shopping, cooking, and meal preparation habits of consumers, they can target the needs of their customers. The search for new recipe ideas is an important part of the shopping process, and by providing recipes that include your products, you will be able to attract and retain more shoppers. When you design your next marketing campaign, consider including recipe ideas that will help consumers prepare foods that are nutritious and easy to create.

Home Cooks Want New Recipe Ideas is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Women are the target audience for Advertising Cosmetic Products

There is no doubt, that Gourmet Ads is one of the most relevant, targeted ways to advertise grocery, food and wine products to consumers online. However, you may not realize that our audience base that is made up largely of the target audience for cosmetic products, Women.

While food is important to our audience, they also love to look and feel great. Our average audience member is a woman between the ages of 27 and 55 years old – the ideal target demographic for health and beauty products. Research has shown that the primary grocery shoppers in most households are women, and that mothers are the major decision makers when it comes to shopping habits for the house hold. These same consumers purchase other items during their shopping trips – including women’s interest magazines and health and beauty items. By using Gourmet Ads to advertise products ranging from make up to anti-aging products, you will reach a consumer that is not only your primary customer, but who is also looking for products to buy during her next shopping trip.

Known as cross-marketing, the idea of advertising non-competing products on a single platform is not a new idea. However, with the increase in women who use the internet in search of new recipe ideas, sales on food items, and even online grocery shopping, the possibilities for marketing cosmetics in conjunction with food items have grown. Female consumers are known for making cosmetic purchases while shopping for food items- this is why many grocery stores have a sizeable cosmetic aisle in the store.

Advertise cosmetic products in the same location where women come to find for food

In the same way, Gourmet Ads can help you advertise cosmetic products in the same location where women come to find out more about food. There has been a documented increase in the number of women who use the internet to find recipes and meal preparation ideas for their families, and by using our platform to put your product in front of these shoppers, you will reach a largely untapped resource.

Our trafficking team has dedicated time and efforts into finding out what makes its audience willing to buy a new product. Cosmetic companies can take advantage of this knowledge by booking advertisements that have been proven to encourage customers to click through and find out more about a particular product.

While customers who visit sites that specifically market cosmetics have often already decided what they want to buy, advertising through food-related websites with Gourmet Ads allows you to reach customers who are at the beginning of the product purchasing cycle. By advertising to these consumers, you will build up your brand identification and remind consumers to look for your product as they complete routine shopping trips. If you are Advertising Cosmetic Products and would like to learn more about Gourmet Ads, then Contact Us.

Advertising Cosmetic Products is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

Brands should harness the value of User Generated Recipes

Some advertisers and their media buyers don’t like to run their advertising on websites which feature user generated content. This is because their advertising could appear next to something inappropriate like adult content or cats running around the house. I totally understand why some companies take that stance. However, User Generated Recipe sites are very different to regular user generated content and in now ways should be included within classification of general “User Generated” content.

For those that don’t know, user generated recipe websites are where the community of thousands of recipe authors contribute to the site instead of just a few authors. Nearly every user generated recipe sites have a recipe structure to follow and they require an image for every recipe. Because the community is so varied with cultures and cooking experience, the website ends up featuring a vast amount of unique content that cant be found else where. Over time recipe authors who create great recipes that people enjoy attract a cult following. Additionally because there isn’t any editorial agenda’s at play the site grows organically and features all types of great recipes.

Gourmet Ads now represents a number of User Generated Recipes sites.

So why should you be running advertising on a User Generated Recipes site?

• Large dedicated audiences
• High page impressions per user
• Continually growing with new recipes all the time
• Strong sense of community between readers and recipe authors
• Conversation between recipe authors
• Readers can rate recipes

So what advertisers can benefit from advertising on User Generated Recipe sites? Well any advertiser that wants to reach the main household grocery buyer. The person who’s looking at recipes online is also more than likely to be the same person who purchases the groceries for the household. Across the globe a number of companies including the multi national food company Unilever have developed their own user generated recipes sites.

User Generated Recipes is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.

50% of online users are looking for Online Recipes

We recently wrote a blog called Recipes for 50% which talked about how some research by JupiterResearch which indicated that 50% of online users are looking for food and cooking information online. Since then we’ve been told about some research from Nielsen’s NetRatings, which like Jupiter has determined that the most popular food related activity online is searching for recipes. So I thought we’d go a little bit deeper into this trend and look at why consumers are heading online to search for recipes and how advertisers can reap the rewards of this trend.

So why are consumers moving online to find recipes? Well there is no doubt that consumers prefer to search and find recipes online opposed to ploughing through cookbooks to find a recipe.

Searching for Online Recipes is quick and easy, but other reasons include;

• Cost – nearly every online recipe site is free
• Video Recipes – More and more recipes sites are now including videos on how to cook particular recipes. So instead of trying to workout how to create a particular recipe, you can site and watch the recipe being created first then make it yourself.
• Recipe Authors – The majority of recipe websites publisher user generated recipes which are created by everyday cooks opposed to chefs. As such most recipes online tend to have a family focus opposed to a fine dining experience.
• Social interaction – many recipes sites allow you rate recipes their. Consumers who have cooked recipes previously can provide comments and suggestions about the recipes, helping you steer away from recipes that don’t work.
• Extensive choice - there are literally hundreds of thousands if not millions of recipes online compared to the 100 or so in a cookbook. You can compare recipe against recipe and determine the ones that look the best.
• Search by ingredients – For people that have an ingredient in the cupboard or fridge they want to use. On most recipe sites they allow you to search by that particular ingredient showing recipes that use the ingredient.

So how can food companies reach this audience of food consumers and household grocery buyers. We know because of our audience profiling at Gourmet Ads that people that visit online recipe sites tend to be the household grocery buyer. As such advertising along side recipes can have a significant effect on sales at the supermarket. Gourmet Ads can develop a strategically placed advertising campaign where you’re advertising is place along side Online Recipes.

Advertising Online Recipes is a blog post from Gourmet Ads Food Advertising network, providing Display Advertising , Video Advertising and Supermarket Advertising solutions to reach the Grocery Buyer online.