Blue Apron Launches Multichannel Campaign With 'Significantly Heavier' Investment, CMO Says

The Blue Apron Holdings "Wellness 360" campaign launched Monday as part of an initiative to showcase how home cooking can benefit the body and soul. It’s one of the company’s largest multichannel campaigns in terms of investment.

“The paid media campaign consists of digital video (OTT/CTV), influencers, display, paid social, search, affiliate and media integrations,” Dani Simpson, Blue Apron head of brand and marketing, wrote in an email to Search & Performance Marketing Daily. “We will also be supporting the campaign on our owned channels through organic social, blog, email and website.”

An increase in the number of consumers cooking at home as a result of lockdowns and restaurant closures during COVID-19 spurred the idea.

The ads will run from December 26, 2020 through March 31, 2021, but the campaign will run through the year. The ads aims to show the health benefits of experimenting with food and becoming your own chief. Some feature new recipes with fresh produce, whole grains and high-quality proteins.

“With the New Year around the corner, we felt it was the perfect time to introduce our new holistic health point of view to consumers and will continue to evolve the campaign over the course of 2021,” she wrote. “To establish our point of view and reach new consumers, we needed to further invest in marketing and support this campaign across the consumer journey, from reach and awareness tactics, down to last touch conversion.”

In July, Blue Apron consolidated its media partners and brought on Razorfish as the media agency of record. In doing so, the company has been working to roll out new performance KPIs, attribution models, tracking and tools across the company.

Through enhanced tracking, Blue Apron began to collect everything from spend and impressions, to click-through-rate to conversions across all channels and assets, Simpson explained.

Blue Apron also frequently asks customers for feedback. It helps with recipe design, which can include everything from which unique, high-quality ingredients to feature, to creating recipes with different cook times, to how recipe cards are outlined. The company also looks to their feedback to help us strengthen messaging across platforms.

Blue Apron recently expanded on its boxes that offer customization with a new “Swap the Starch” option, customers can swap out a traditional side — a starch like potatoes, rice or pasta — in a recipe for additional vegetables, Banza chickpea pasta or make-your-own cauliflower rice.

The Wellness 360 influencer campaign integrates multiple channels like connected TV, streaming video and editorial sponsorships. Blue Apron also expects to work with influencers across all five wellness categories to highlight the ways home cooking can support a healthy lifestyle.

The advertisements and sponsorships highlight cooking options, with recipes designed for quicker prep and easier clean-up, like sheet pan and one-pot dinners, so people can spend less time in the kitchen.

In 2020, the company ran smaller multichannel campaigns throughout the year, including a collaboration with Disney and Pixar for the launch of their movie “Soul,” as well as an ongoing chief partnership program, the most recent with Chief Edouardo Jordan.

“So while our Wellness 360 campaign is not the first multichannel campaign, this is a significantly heavier investment in upper funnel channels, including CTV/OTT, editorial partnerships and a robust influencer program,” she wrote.

 

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