Dive Brief:
- Blue Apron has debuted a new campaign aimed at highlighting the benefits of at-home cooking, the meal kit maker announced on Monday.
- Called “Wellness 360,” the initiative features new recipes with healthier ingredients including whole grains and fresh produce, as well as options that are easier to prepare, like one-pot meals. Customers can also expect added customization with the existing menu offerings, allowing them to swap out side dishes with starch for more vegetables or other choices, like Banza chickpea pasta.
- The new campaign, which includes a push to use advertising, influencers and collaborations to reach consumers, comes at a time when meal kit companies and food retailers are looking to sustain interest in the at-home cooking trend fired by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Dive Insight:
Blue Apron is positioning its latest campaign as going beyond meal preparation and appealing to growing interest in “holistic wellness” by showing how home cooking impacts the brain, relationships, and mental and financial health.
“We know home cooking is more than making a meal. It has the ability to unlock a host of different benefits across aspects of one’s daily life, including reducing stress,” Dani Simpson, Blue Apron’s head of brand and marketing, said in the announcement.
Blue Apron’s newest campaign shows it’s tapping into the health and wellness trends expected to keep gaining in popularity next year. Competitor Freshly has said it plans to offer more health-focused and goal-oriented products to customers.
The new campaign from Blue Apron also furthers a growing number of partnerships between meal kit companies and multimedia channels, most likely in an effort to reach consumers staying inside and turning to streaming services for entertainment. In announcing the campaign, Blue Apron said it will turn to connected TV, streaming video, editorial sponsorships and wellness influencers, along with continuing to work with WW, formerly known as Weight Watchers, on vegetable-focused recipes. Similarly, Kroger-owned meal kit company Home Chef recently unveiled a partnership with NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service, offering meal discounts and a free month of the service’s premium option.
The latest campaign by Blue Apron comes at the end of a year spent trying to find its footing as competition in the meal kit space ramped up. The company’s reported revenue growth of 13% year-over-year and average orders per customer increased 20% in the third quarter. However, a reported 7.5% drop in customers led to its shares nosediving 29% in a single day in October. That same month, the meal kit company reorganized its board. Last month, it brought on a new chief operating officer after the departure of its former COO, who left in June.
Last week, Blue Apron announced the resignation of Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Timothy S. Bensley, effective December 31. Bensley will stay on as a company advisor into the middle of the first financial quarter, and Blue Apron has engaged a corporate recruiting firm to find a replacement.
