Chinese moms are eager to learn how to cook, and have a habit of using search engines to find their answer. They are very mobile savvy and constantly on social media, and this behaviour change provided an untapped opportunity. How can Knorr reach out to mothers and inspire them, while she is in the process of planning, buying and cooking a meal for her family?

The Knorr vision is to become the most helpful, trusted and inspirational digital food partner that brings enjoyment and expertise, by combining the utility of recipes with the engagement of Knorr. This was brought to life through the Knorr “Always On, Always Inspire” Recipe Platform. The priority of Knorr is to build brand awareness and preference. Knorr has to reach out to mothers during the moment that matters. And that moment is when they are planning the next meal, both digitally and physically.

Knorr used regionally differentiated TV to take ownership to the Top dish of that region and drive search. On Baidu, Knorr covered the searches of top dishes by region, and delivered the most popular recipes during 4:00-6:00pm, as households in China are preparing dinner at that time of day. An always-on recipe was available, and seasonal dishes were updated throughout family bonding festivities, like the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year.

Partnering with Meishijie, Knorr established a brand page within the site, and educated users on product benefits and brand differentiators. At the same time, KOLs on Meishijie inspired users with their own created recipes, and encouraged users to create their own recipes to share and review. This built a very unique online and mobile ecosystem where a brand was involved to directly communicate and leverage KOLs, and get users to participate socially in the most authentic way possible.

Within 1st month of the launch of this new approach, Knorr’s sales already improved by 17%.

Through a search led strategy on Baidu, winning clicks in “non-brand” and “top dish” keywords drove uplift in Knorr’s brand search volume by 116%. This built top of mind awareness of Knorr’s brand with Chinese mothers as they are looking for meal inspiration.

Through the content partnership on Meishijie, Knorr successfully attracted over 375,000 views to Knorr’s official recipe, with 5,700 views per recipe. Over 20 KOLs were selected to create their own recipes, which led to 10,000 additional views. With Knorr and KOL’s engagement, it inspired users to share over 60 recipes, with a total viewership of UGC recipes of over 191,000 views.

By creating Knorr’s recipes, and then empowering the consumers to share theirs, Knorr successfully began a unique engagement with Chinese moms, as they are preparing and cooking their favourite meals.