Click here...

BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS

Woman’s Day Launches iPhone ‘Cookvook’
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Steve Smith

In a neat twist on the mobile app format, Woman’s Day yesterday released a mobile cookbook for the iPhone that

blends recipes with embedded video. The “Woman’s Day Cookvook: Healthy Food for Everyday Living” used the recently launched Vook technology, which combines mobile books with video clips. In this case the $9.99 package includes text and food images as well as 45 videos illustrating their preparation, cooking techniques and healthy eating tips. The recipes are derived from a book of the same name published by Woman’s Day owner Hachette Filipacchi and author Elizabeth Alston.

Vook CEO Brad Inman says the format of a video-enhanced mobile cookbook matches the unique use cases of mobile media. “The Woman’s Day Cookvook is a great example of how combining video and anytime access with popular book content can greatly enhance the way we engage with these titles and provide an entirely new resource,” he says in a statement. “Being able to grab your phone and watch a cook prepare a recipe that was handpicked by Woman’s Day editors is the next best thing to having them in the kitchen there with you.”

The Cookvook also lives online so those without iPhones can get the full contents. The site itself is a little marvel of flexibility. The contents can be viewed in multiple ways, emphasizing text or videos, in full screen, etc. There is even an embedded Twitter feed that lets you follow a thread that uses a special hashtag.

While Woman’s Day’s Cookvook is a novel idea, it comes into the iPhone up against substantial free and low-priced cooking directories from Reader’s Digest’s AllRecipes, Conde Nast Digital’s Epicurious, and Kraft’s own branded application the iFood Assistant. This mobile app and site have 45 videos illustrating only 45 recipes. The value add, according to the company, is that the videos illustrate both editors and everyday women from around the country demonstrating how easy these dishes are to prepare.

Cookbooks also work differently than online recipe databases, says Carlos Lamadrid, Woman’s Day’s svp/chief branding officer. “There are people who say I need a chicken recipe for tonight and they go online or into their recipe app and look for one. This is a lean forward scenario. The Cookvook is the same concept as a cookbook. People buy cookbooks because it is themed and curated around a specific concept.” The $9.99 price tag is considerably cheaper for the digital selections than the full print version. And this version has entertaining clips of real world cooks in action and many clips on technique and tips for healthy eating.

After having played with the content of the Cookvook we can say that the videos communicate an energy and joy to the cooking experience that is lacking in many procedural recipe walkthroughs. The editing is lively, and the camera brings the reader into the kitchens of real women…often with real kids getting underfoot. Clearly there is an opportunity for publishers to leverage multimedia on smart phones to create unique, self-contained content packages rather than tool content feeds.

Lamadrid says HFMUS and Woman’s Day are discussing other projects using this technology.

If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com

More Breaking News & Views

Breaking News & Views Archives

COMMENTS

Intriguing & Top-Selling Magazine Covers

View Details

The State of Digital Media

View Details

Twitter Best Practices for Media Companies

View Details

Internet Sales Guidebook

View Details

All min Press

Events Calendar

September 15
Awards Event: September 15
More Information

November 9, 2010
min day Digital Summit
Learn More

All Events

Copyright © 2010 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Access Intelligence, LLC is prohibited. For more details please see Terms and Conditions.

min day Digital Summit
November 9 in NYC
Register Today!