Co-op Food partnered with Channel 4’s social-first cooking channel and podcasts to inject itself into people’s dinner-plan conversations and promote its new ready meals.
Carat created the media plan out of a brief to ‘break people’s habits of eating and cooking the same things each week,’ says Andy Kimpson, client account director at the agency.
‘We found that searching for food inspiration peaks midweek,’ said Kimpson, adding that the campaign was designed to insert the brand into these conversations.
While Co-op Food would typically advertise through traditional paid media channels, the campaign to promote its new Served range of ready meals marked an intentional move into editorial and talent-led content.
‘We needed to have those conversations and talk in a more engaging way that you just cannot do through normal media,’ Kimpson said.
Co-op Food launched its Served meals on 18 September, targeting commuters and young families who do not have time to cook from scratch.
Podcast partnerships were a key pillar of the campaign. Some of the podcasts, Comfort Eating with Grace Dent and Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster, were focused squarely on food. But others, like The Buckleys and Wanging On, were not.
‘While [our target audience does] have an interest in food, we saw that their actual interests in media and podcasts weren’t anything to do with food,’ explained Kimpson. ‘They were much more interested in comedy, entertainment and history — food was a bit lower down the priority list.’
That said, the brand did partner with Channel 4’s social-first food channel, which also has the same name as Co-op’s new food range, Served. Kimpson called this an ‘amazing coincidence’ and revealed that it was Channel 4 who pitched the partnership idea.
‘The Channel 4 Served is about creating recipes from scratch whereas obviously the Co-op Served is not. But we did work with the creator to allow it to still work quite nicely in that the host would put the Co-op Served food in the oven and then they would create a starter or a dessert from scratch in the time that it took for that food to cook,’ he said.
Channel 4’s Served gave Co-Op Food a way to reach a slightly younger audience. To reach other audiences, they used channels such as radio and digital audio, serving ads at ‘key commuter times’ in the mornings and afternoons. The brand also targeted commuters through OOH ads on road and rail sites and by serving ads in mobile games.
‘We worked with a partner who has access to the inventory of lots of mobile gaming,’ Kimpson said. ‘One thing we’re doing and we’ve done for a few campaigns now is to match the creative. So the creative actually has a game within it as well. This could be a Connect Four-type game or a quiz that you play as part of the advert and that matches the environment it is in.’
As well as targeting commuters, the mobile game ads also captured people who were second-screening while relaxing at home. Another way in which the brand reached audiences at home was through AdPause formats on VOD and CTV, specifically on Netflix, Channel 4 and ITVX.
‘We chose VOD and CTV to associate ourselves with people sat down in front of their TV and having their evening meal,’ Kimpson said. He shared that this was a ‘smaller part of the campaign’ but an effective way to catch people during ‘what to watch’ moments.
Featured image: The Buckleys / YouTube
