Greg Shove presented on Williams-Sonoma's Cooks' Network program, which delivers branded content to food bloggers and their audiences. The goals are to gain relevance with younger consumers and extend the brand experience online. Over 500 publishers participate, selecting content widgets for their sites. Metrics show the program has achieved over 175,000 engagements and 26 million impressions at 3x the rate of display ads. Lessons include offering compelling social currency for bloggers and audiences, as well as investing in unique brand content and a retention strategy. Future plans include more blogger content promotion and exclusive offers through an expanded influencer hub platform.

1. Greg ShoveCEO, Founder Halogen Media GroupCooks’ NetworkSocial Influence ProgramSocial Media Insider SummitAugust 20, 2011

2. Williams-Sonoma: Cooks’ Network ArchitectsKatherine Rice, VP Business Development, Williams-SonomaRichard Siefert, SVP Consumer Marketing, Williams-Sonoma“We recognize the importance and expertise of the blogger community and want to engage with their community in new ways. By sharing our content with bloggers, we hope to increase our reach and expand our dialogue with them and our their communities.”

3. Cooks’ Network Social Influence ProgramWhat? Branded content delivery network to food communities.Why? To gain relevance among younger, connected consumers.

4. Extend the brand experience to where the foodies are.

5. Earn social outcomes across the power middle of food publishers.

6. 13% of all bloggers create 80% of all product-related postsThe Power MiddleEDITORSAbout 5K food/cooking bloggers within the target.80%13%FANS & FOLLOWERSSource: North American Empowerment Online Survey Q4, 2009

7. Cooks’ Network: Version 1.0 Create value proposition for publishers and consumers

8. Identify, recruit and approve social publishers

9. Spec and build scalable and self-service platform

10. Identify and test content, formats and creative

11. Create and streamline publisher on-boarding processover 500 publishers select from custom widgets based on site’s contentHow it workscontent pulled into widgets in real-timebrand provides authentic contentsocial, earned media outcomes

13. Sample Content Widgets

14. Cooks’ Network: Program Components Consistent, fresh content on editorial schedule

15. Technology platform

16. Influencer managementTHEWEBBRAND CONTENT, PROMOTIONS, SAMPLESACTIVATORPLATFORMINFLUENCERNETWORK

17. Cooks’ Network: KPI’sDistribution/Media Publishers in program

18. Monthly uniques

19. Monthly pageviews

20. Inbound links/bloggers