Well, because the online market is massive, its hard to locate the best and most creative ones, so the best way to find them was through Web Creative Awards, Like: NMA, BIMA and Webby.
It was really hard to choose A FAVORITE creative, as they are all very professional, creative, original and successful! I looked at many of them, and I finally settled on Channel4/ 4Food, they won the NMA effectiveness award of the Media category in 2010. 4Food is the best media website, and winning the award is an indication of their success and a result of the hard work they put into it.
I personally absolutely loved the website because I thought it had a vast amount of content for everyone! It’s literally for everyone; it’s fun, interactive, user friendly, informative, diverse and MORE!
4Food uses a combination of Digital Marketing channels and techniques which makes it effective and appealing to a variety of audiences – starting from younger generations to older ones and families.
Now, I’m going to take you on a journey of my 4Food fascination. The first thing that caught my eyes was the game box, well it’s not really a game but it’s like a “food slot machine” which I think was really cool. You basically press on the ‘Inspire Me’ button and it generates food, for example: Chicken and Bacon and then you press ‘Find Recipe’ and it finds you a recipe with both ingredients which is cool because it makes people try different foods and recipes that they haven’t thought of. This little game/ slot machine is sponsored by Hellmann’s they provide GDA (Guideline Daily Amount) information. I thought it was a really smart and fun way of helping people finding new innovative recipes!
Here 4Food used the In-Game advertising as they are advertising for Hellmann’s and at the same time they have a cool kind of “Recipe Generating Game”. This technique is definitely useful as it’s a new way of attracting customers.
Also, 4Food uses Affiliate Marketing, by allowing other companies/brands to advertise on their website, like: Google Chrome, Barclays, Nissan, Blackberry, Yoox and MANY MANY more. When you press on any advert it leads you the company’s website. This is good for both 4Food and the companies that advertise on it. It brings Website traffic for both and it generates profits too. In addition, having such big companies advertising on 4Food is just a proof of their credibility, success and popularity.
Now I know that there are many other channels or Food websites that are really good and well done! But are they as creative as 4Food?
Well, I’m going to compare
it with BBC-Food, which has the exact, same “food theme”. They dedicated a whole section to their food programs and to provide people with recipes and suggestions for using specific ingredients, but for me it seemed a little boring! With all respect for BBC as its one of the best and best TV channels and its actually one of my favorite, but still it looks like its targeted towards only older audiences and its not as interactive, fun, cool and “fresh” like 4Food.
What makes 4Food special is that the recipe generating section of their website is more creative and fun as its like a game, on the other hand BBC has a more specified criteria and an organized way of searching which I think is ordinary. Also, 4Food is more modern in terms of using new social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, while BBC is still on blogs which are good but not as accessible and outreaching to people as Twitter and Facebook. Another technique that 4Food uses is attracting customers and visitors to their website through having celebrity chefs like, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey who generate traffic – they’re like a Magnet. Having celebrity chefs on their website increases their SEO ranking; people internationally search for those chefs and 4Food comes up which makes it popular everywhere, Not only in the UK, while BBC has national chefs who most of them are only known in the UK.
BBC:
4Food:
Another example of a media channel website it the ITV website’s Lifestyle/Food section. First of all this section is not totally dedicated for their Food programs and chefs. The section is about different lifestyle shows like Fashion – this obviously doesn’t target the “food audience”. Another thing I didn’t like about their food section was that I found some outdated content like Christmas recipes (which appeared on a main “food section” page), and it seems to me that they don’t update and generate new recipes and content which they should in order to attract customers.
Obviously every website has it pros and cons, and one of the ITV food section pros which I liked was that they had a ‘Shop’ section where website visitors can buy things that could help them in their cooking processes, for example pots and pans! Also, they have a BMI calculator on their page which is cool because it helps promoting good health and help people maintain and reach their ideal weights and not eat excessively. I think 4Food should adapt this into their website.
In my opinion, channel 4/ 4Food really deserved winning a creative media channel prize for being one of the best websites to represent a TV channel, it transformed all the Food information, programs, competitions and more into a lovely website which serves a lot of people digitally. Also, the availability of content online on the main website other than for example Youtube or Facebook is a very good way of allowing people to watch the shows they missed and watch a recipe they loved again. In addition it allows them to explore more about food it’s like an interactive, playful and online food book.
Woorank have some statistics about Channel 4 which show that the most popular page after the home page of their website is the 4Food section. Check out the report, its Fascinating.
According to the Guardian, in a 2007 article ‘Chefs to lead Channel 4 food campaign’: “The celebrity chefs, who are three of the channel's most recognizable faces, will attempt to change the nation's eating habits in a similar way to Oliver's crusade to improve school meals on his award-winning series Jamie's School Dinners” – John Plunkett. This was one of the early campaigns which boosted the popularity and social responsibility image of 4Food.
As for the new/2011 plans of 4Food and as it became a brand in the online Food world; Codorníu which is a Spanish sparkling wine producer will be sponsoring the new 4Food series ‘The secret supper club’. According to TheDrinksBusiness: Codorníu will be building associations with supper clubs throughout 2011, “helping to build awareness and encourage consumers to participate in the informal dining experience, through sponsoring London-based Supper Clubs and sampling wines at supper club events.”
I think 4Food’s digital marketing tools were implemented very effectively. It’s amazing how they used digital marketing to enhance and create an online brand which originally existed on another digital form (TV). Not only does 4Food online has food recipes, videos and TV show timetable, they also promote for healthy eating habits and Helping people get better lifestyles - Food is a way of living. Furthermore, as we are living in a digital era it is very useful to have an online channel because we are all converting to watching programs online rather than on the TV so 4Food’s digital approach comes as successful, creative and unique.
I personally love their website and I used some of their recipes which were delicious! Having the recipes online and having video tools allowed me to repeat, pause and go back to it any time I wanted! I also like the fact that I can follow them on Twitter and see their status updates and get reminders and sneak peeks to shows and programs.
4Food deserved the NMA creative award and I congratulate them for that!
So everyone, what did you think about 4Food? Do you think they are creative and deserved the award?
& Also tell me what’s your favorite creative, and why? :)
Innas A.
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