The opportunity
McCain’s brand platform in 2020 centred around family and meaningful mealtime connection, underpinned by the functional benefits of frozen vegetables. They challenged us to create both reach and “new news” in the form of communications innovation – with a particular focus on reinventing the format of a cookbook.
Food24 and McCain had strong synergies around values like authenticity, relatability and accessible inspiration. With that in mind, we created a personalised print-on-demand cookbook experience designed to build both connection and utility.
The solution
We offered McCain the scale of the Food24 brand, its deep recipe archive and development team, a full video production offering, and the technical firepower of Swipe iX. What resulted was a first-of-its-kind direct-to-consumer cookbook creator tool.
The McCain Family Cookbook, brought to you by Food24, allowed users to upload six of their own family recipes – complete with notes and pictures – and choose from five Food24 categories (eg baking, vegan, under-30-minute meals). These were combined with Food24’s most popular recipes and a curated selection of McCain recipes to create a one-of-a-kind, 48-recipe printed cookbook, delivered directly to users’ doors. Users could also personalise the name of their book, adding to the sense of ownership and emotional value.
Development began in September 2020 and was completed by the end of November – an impressively agile three-month timeline for such a bespoke, multi-platform build. Swipe iX designed a secure, scalable and custom-built platform that prioritised both user experience and performance.
Campaign marketing was amplified through branded sections on Food24, influencer engagement, social media and newsletter distribution, video and article content, and a webinar series. McCain took the campaign through the line – running TVCs with real user testimonials, a POS campaign with WhatsApp-linked vouchers, and targeted email and CRM campaigns. The collaboration drove not only engagement and media performance, but real brand distinction and sales uplift.
The results
The cookbook brought the McCain brand into homes in a meaningful, physical way – and extended the digital-only Food24 experience into print for the first time.
From November 2020 to April 2021, the campaign delivered:
- 1 463 384 banner impressions (vs KPI of 400 000)
- 5 359 631 social impressions (893 271/month vs KPI of 371 747/month)
- 4 390 898 social reach (731 816/month vs KPI of 154 440/month)
It went on to win Gold for Best Use of Innovative Technology at the 2021 International Content Marketing Awards (London), and Best Use of Technology as Part of a Content Marketing Program at the 2022 Content Marketing Awards (New York).
