Vancouver, B.C. — Thursday, May 1, 2008
Rouxbe.com, the premier online instructional cooking site, today announced a breakthrough partnership with HarperCollins Canada that will create a dedicated Rouxbe channel for consumers who purchase select HarperCollins Canada cooking publications.
As part of the program HarperCollins Canada will pay for a 90-day premium membership to Rouxbe.com to extend the "learning to cook" experience for consumers beyond their book purchase. The program will launch with select video support for HarperCollins Canada's cookbook Anita Stewart's Canada and will be followed by nine other titles over the following six months.
"We're thrilled to be aligned with a brand that understands the unique nature of both our content and our business model," said Joe Girard, founder or Rouxbe. "Our rich, ad-free content provides a great environment for the food lover who's truly interested in improving their cooking skills. The brand-exclusive HarperCollins Canada channel enables our partner to stay top of mind with their consumer and increase brand affinity."
Here's how the co-branded site hc.rouxbe.com works:
The co-branded HarperCollins Canada/Rouxbe site contains the full range of Rouxbe's instructional cooking videos and recipes. The consumer entering the site through the partnership offer is invited to opt-in by way of a pre-paid membership to the HarperCollins Canada version of the site.
Once they've opted-in, the consumer has full access to all Rouxbe content. The high quality of Rouxbe content is presently generating a conversion rate of 35% among all users.
As one element of the partnership, Rouxbe provides HarperCollins Canada with embedded tools to interact with their Rouxbe consumer on the site. A full range of business intelligence and analytics are available to HarperCollins Canada.
"Rouxbe is able to provide HarperCollins access to a terrific target market," said Steve Osgoode, Director of Digital Marketing and Business Development. "Home chefs are able to enhance their knowledge through our cookbooks like they never have before, and the added value of the Rouxbe experience is offered to them with our books at the retail level. The program brings our cookbooks to life on the Internet, and we are excited to be the first publisher moving forward with this."
Girard added, "We believe that the web can be a very powerful engagement tool for companies and marketers looking to interact and ?serve' their online users, as opposed to a pitching ground for customer acquisition. Our engagement model breaks through the online ad noise by delivering a brand-exclusive engagement tool for progressive marketers like HarperCollins Canada that understood branding and have a strong desire to deepen their relationship with their consumer."
HarperCollinsCanada publishes fiction, non-fiction, and books for children, as well as cookbooks, religious and reference books. HarperCollins imprints in Canada include HarperCollins, HarperPerennial, HarperTrophyCanada, Collins, and Phyllis Bruce Books. These imprints publish many of Canada's finest writers and leading authorities on a variety of subjects, including Barbara Gowdy, Peter C. Newman, Tim Flannery, Paul Gross, Kenneth Oppel, Isabel Allende, Ted Rogers, Bill Richardson, Anita Stewart, David Rocco and Robin Sharma. Visit the HarperCollinsCanada website at www.harpercollins.ca.
About Rouxbe:
The Rouxbe Cooking School (rouxbe.com), founded in 2005, teaches home cooks, culinary students, and culinary professionals to become better and more confident cooks. Rouxbe captures a professional culinary curriculum in close-up video and delivers it via self-paced online classes, making professional quality culinary instruction more accessible and affordable to individuals and organizations. Rouxbe has been adopted by professional culinary schools, high schools, food services organizations, and cooking enthusiasts around the world.
