2011 Bronze Best use of mobile

Client Waitrose

What is wonderful about this work? Waitrose wanted a high-tech kitchen tool. This practical, beautiful app was fun and easy to use, while fully integrated with the warm festive identity in store. Over 120,000 downloads in a month; “App of the Week” in both iTunes and Android Marketplace (a first); half a million recipe views.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? We needed something instantly recognisable, with as many useful functions as possible. We had to convey Waitrose’s “feeling of Christmas jolliness”, be accessible to a mass audience (via iPhone, iPad and Android) while specifically appealing to the Waitrose audience, and generate desire to find out more about the Waitrose range. QR codes were used across all Christmas campaign media. The main function helped them plan, buy and prepare Christmas food and drink, while an advent calendar highlighted a different app element each day throughout December. This was clearly a Waitrose app, with a gift finder, party planner, canapé calculator, vegetable calculator and turkey timer.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? The key creative idea was to build a ‘kitchen tool’ app to engage customers with the brand and enable them to access a large amount of content, offers and information. The design integrated with the 2010 Christmas creative, which was traditional, warm, charming and instantly recognisable as Waitrose, implementing the bespoke graphics produced for all promotional communications: from the hand-drawn typefaces for the calendar doors to the jolly Santa and snowman backgrounds. The app used a mix of traditional on-page recipes with video instructions featuring Waitrose’s brand ambassador chefs (Delia & Heston), all aimed at inspiring in-store footfall. By making the app as immersive and interactive as possible, we provided a direct response to the main Waitrose campaign and a vital tool for planning a perfect Christmas. And social media and email were fully integrated.

Results Brand awareness was raised across all audiences, with over 120,000 downloads and nearly 40,000 QR scans (one in three resulting in a download). Apple featured it in App of the Week, Staff Favourites, and What’s Hot for four weeks, plus it was App of the Week in the Android chart too – the first time this has happened. The average session length was over three minutes. Recipes were viewed half a million times and half the users used tools: nearly 100% used the calendar, 10% shared recipes and 10% viewed videos. Over a third used the “Big Day Planner”, 15% searched for a store and 100 people called a store from the app.

Team Jonathan Bass, Craig Jamieson, Nick De Pontes, Matthew Wilkinson, Chloe Kirton, Fiona Hall.

Other contributors Zara Picken – Graphic artist.