Online Cookbook

The Opportunity: Giving customers another reason online

Roberts Dairy receives countless requests for the Authentic Roberts Cookbook, originally published in 1974. During the years the cookbook was available for purchase, 25,000 copies were sold. The Authentic Roberts Cookbook offered a collection of 1,250 recipes which were compiled, tested and edited in the Roberts Dairy Test Kitchen by Roberts’ Home Economist Anne Richards. The recipes were generated not only for the experienced chef in mind, but for the novice cook as well. While the recipe book was still in high demand, but no longer being printed, Roberts Dairy decided to create a digital offering of the recipes. In July, 2008, all 1,250 recipes from the 1974 Authentic Roberts Cookbook became available online at robertsdairy.com/cookbook.

The Operation: Spreading the word, the correct way

An integrated marketing campaign was developed to spread the word about the online release of the Authentic Roberts Cookbook. The campaign included an e-mail blast, an aggressive public relations campaign, radio commercials, newspapers, FSIs and Web promos. While online, visitors can view and rate recipes, e-mail favorites and save them using Internet social bookmarks such as Digg, Delicious and Facebook. To draw additional attention to this useful meal-planning tool, Roberts Dairy asked people to submit their favorite recipes using their products. The five winners’ recipes were added to Roberts Dairy’s online collection and won $50 of dairy products.

The Icing on the Cake

The results of the online cookbook launch proved recipes are in high demand.

• Roberts Dairy released all 1,250 recipes from their 1974 Authentic Roberts Cookbook online.
• Sign-ups to the Roberts Dairy e-newsletter increased 7% following the launch of the online cookbook.
• Unique website visitor traffic to www.robertsdairy.com was up 54 % during the months following the launch of the online cookbook.