Food porn for the masses via Waitrose is set to arrive on a tablet, laptop or computer near you this Autumn as the retailer is working together with Red Bee Media to create Waitrose TV.
The plan is to provide content to inspire home cooks with 6 different channels of content. The Highlights channel will have new videos each week, and other channels will be dedicated to food, health, drink, ethical sourcing and seasonal events like Chirstmas.
Content will range from recipes, how-to guides and interviews. We’d expect it also acts as a fair promotional source for the Waitrose brand too, but if you’ve ever bought a supermarket magazine for the recipes, you’ll know that’s par for the course.
The project does have some top names from the culinary world to attract viewers. Expect to see Delia, Heston Blumenthal, Dhruv Baker, The Fabulous Baker Brothers, Silvana Franco and Sam Stern in the mix.
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In a feat of connectivity, there will be a ‘Buy ingredients’ button on screen that will offer viewers a way to click through and make purchases for specific recipes or related products. no doubt this will help promote products and owning the channel means not having to wait for that lucrative TV sponsorship deal.
Whether you shop at Waitrose or not, having a how-to recipe video on a tablet in a kitchen, will be easier than trying to keep up with traditionally broadcast TV. The ability to stop, pause and rewind instructions while reading a text version seems a nice way to learn new things, providing you can keep eggs, flour and milk away from your nice clean touch screen.
The content will also be shareable via Facebook and Twitter, not a bad idea as many of us like to discuss the food we’re about to try, the meals that went well and of course the kitchen disasters where it’s fun to share the pain.
Controlled content
Waitrose has 284 shops around the UK and Channel Islands and is often seen as a pretty fancy place to shop. More recently a social media campaign went a little wrong for the brand when it was hijacked on Twitter.
The online campaign asked customers to finish the line, “I shop at Waitrose because…” plus the hashtag #WaitroseReasons and a deluge of sarcasm and hijinks ensued. This proves that once you release something like this on the Web, you no longer own it.
I shop at Waitrose because the butler’s on holiday. #waitrosereasons
— James Wallbank (@accessjames) September 21, 2012
I shop at Waitrose because I once heard a 6yr old boy in the shop say “Daddy does Lego have a ‘t’ at the end, like Merlot?” #waitrosereasons — Ben Jones (@welshben) September 20, 2012
I shop at Waitrose because Clarrisa’s pony just WILL NOT eat ASDA Value straw #waitrosereasons — Nic Stevenson (@nicstevenson) September 17, 2012
Realising the campaign was out of control, the company responded with good grace and received the jokes with good grace.
Thanks again for all the #waitrosereasons tweets. We really did enjoy the genuine and funny replies. Thanks for making us smile.
— Waitrose(@waitrose) September 20, 2012
Let’s hope Clarissa’s pony likes Web TV….
Image Credit: BazzaDaRambler
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