The Guardian and EssenceMediacom have announced a new six month multi-channel partnership with Tesco Finest. The campaign will place Tesco Finest’s food offering at the heart of the Guardian’s modern spin on cooking culture.
The Guardian’s says its premium environment aligns with Tesco Finest’s brand credentials, helping drive consideration with an audience engaged in quality food, saying it reaches almost 7m (42%) “foodies” a month (source: PAMCo H1 2024/ TGI Feb 2024 Multibasing). The Guardian claims some 70% of its readers also turn to its food content for cooking inspiration.
A first for the Guardian, added the publisher, the campaign includes Tesco Finest’s exclusive sponsorship of newly launched cooking and recipe app Feast. According to the Guardian, the Feast app has reached more than 135,000 downloads since it first soft-launched in April this year. Tesco Finest has 100 percent share of voice throughout the Feast app. Over the coming weeks, the app will showcase a curated collection of Tesco Finest recipes with a mix of foods that demonstrate the breadth and quality available from the brand.
The integrated campaign will soon feature Tesco Finest-branded content across digital, audio, newsletter, social and print formats, as well as events. Highlights include shoppable recipes that will direct Guardian readers to a Tesco basket loaded with ingredients from the Tesco Finest recipe collection and sponsorship on the upcoming season of the Guardian’s food podcast Comfort Eating with Grace Dent launching this autumn.
The Guardian says its bespoke multi-channel approach to partnerships is effective and influential, adding the most brand value. The publisher says benchmarking research into the Guardian’s ad effectiveness shows that multi-channel consumer campaigns see greater uplifts (vs. digital only) particularly when it comes to metrics such as brand consideration and brand love.
Digitally, the campaign is driven by strategic targeting, making the most of the Guardian’s deep audience insights built from previous collaborations with Tesco, added the publisher. Guardian technology will deliver takeovers during peak activity times for Tesco Finest’s target audience.
Jess McKenzie, head of brand - Tesco Finest, said: “We are excited to be partnering with the Guardian to showcase our fantastic range of Tesco Finest products through the Feast app. The partnership provides a platform to engage customers around Tesco Finest’s product quality and inspire customers through delicious recipes.”
Imogen Fox, chief advertising officer, Guardian Media Group, said: “Tesco Finest and the Guardian work perfectly together because we share a love of quality food. We’re really excited as this is the first time the Guardian has ever created a multimedia campaign that incorporates our new Feast app. Buying direct with us gives brands the best of the Guardian. I can’t wait to try some of these new recipes.”
The campaign started on 12 August and will run for the next six months.
The publisher says all branded content will be clearly labelled in line with the Guardian’s content funding guidelines.
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