Skip The Dishes launch a cookbook to support Canadians feeling the pinch...plus 6 more creative cookbooks campaigns

Think cookbooks are just a collection of recipes? Think again. They can also be powerful marketing tools for brands looking to promote inclusion, engage with their audience, reinforce brand positioning, or even promote their products or services.

At a time when consumers are increasingly seeking out meaningful brand experiences, a well-crafted cookbook [digital or physical] can be a valuable tool for brands to differentiate themselves from their competitors and create a lasting impression in the minds of their customers.

Here are six great examples of brands using cookbooks starting with a data-led AI cookbook recently launched by Skip The Dishes to help Canadians through the current cost of living crisis.

Inflation Cookbook | Skip The Dishes | Dentsu Creative

Canadians are struggling to afford groceries due to skyrocketing food prices, with up to 8 million reportedly skipping meals to make ends meet. To help alleviate this problem, SkipTheDishes, a food delivery service in Canada, has developed an AI-powered shopping tool called "The Inflation Cookbook" to help Canadians maximize their grocery budgets by monitoring food prices weekly and surfacing recipes based on the most affordable and nutritious ingredients available. The service uses AI in partnership with a top nutritionist and chef to instantly turn the ingredient list into healthy recipes. The campaign was created and produced by Dentsu Creative, which aims to help Canadians shop smarter, not just cut costs. The tool not only provides cost savings but also helps users understand the week-to-week volatility of the healthiest ingredients so that they can make the best choices for their budget.

IKEA ScrapsBook | IKEA | Rethink

With 63% of food wasted daily across Canada, IKEA wanted to take action to highlight this shocking statistic and to offer ideas on how to combat it. After all, they’re well known for their storage solutions so why not help store all that leftover food in bellies across the country rather than in the nearest bin. The clever idea saw them work with top chefs from across Canada to show the general population that leftover kitchen scraps could be turned into something useful. The free cookbook was collated and made available for free on various platforms – removing any barrier for someone not to have access to it. The idea also supports their own goals of becoming a circular, climate-positive business by 2030.

Cooking Blindly | Maggi | Publicis

Brazil has over 6.5 million people living with visual impairments yet no cookbook ever catered to their needs. Enter Maggi, a popular brand in the country, that wanted to make the kitchen more inclusive and democratic by launching a sensory culinary guide for the visually impaired. The cookbook, named "Cooking Blindly," was developed in partnership with the Dorina Foundation, the largest organization dedicated to visually impaired people's inclusion in Brazil. The cookbook explores the kitchen with different senses and serves as a tool to empower people with visual impairments to gain autonomy and cook for themselves and others. With this guide, Maggi hoped to inspire more people with visual impairments to explore the joys of cooking and culinary creation.

Italy's Best Kept Secret | La Famiglia Rana | BMB

La Famiglia Rana, a premium pasta brand, launched an influencer-driven campaign in the UK to encourage consumers to try its fresh-filled pasta. The campaign centred on the release of a new and exclusive cookbook called "Italy's Best Kept Secret". The cookbook featured a secret compartment that contained a free pack of Rana's fresh-filled pasta, allowing influencers and media to discover the brand's products for themselves. The campaign aimed to position La Famiglia Rana as a different and delicious choice to snap consumers out of their repetitive mealtime habits.

Rising Time CookBook | Trojan Condoms | 72andSunny

Trojan Brand Condoms, a sexual health company, launched a sensual e-cookbook called "Rising Time" just in time for World Baking Day during the Covid-19 pandemic. The free 69-page e-book contained 25 bread recipes, with quirky puns and sensual food photography to accompany them. The release leaned into the increased popularity of baking as a quarantine activity. In addition to the cookbook's launch, Trojan Brand Condoms pledged to donate 50,000 meals to those in need through a partnership with Feeding America. While on a brand messaging front, the cookbook encouraged readers to practice safe sex.

The Better Half Cookbook | Swiggy Instamart | Dentsu

Swiggy Instamart, an Indian grocery delivery service, identified a significant issue of gender inequality in cooking, with 88% of women in India doing all the cooking single-handedly and spending 577% more time on household work than men. To address this issue, Swiggy Instamart launched an engagement campaign to "obliterate this kitchen inequality" by rethinking cooking as a chore that couples can enjoy together. The company collaborated with Dentsu Webchutney to create The Better Half Cookbook, which splits the dishes into two halves, giving partners an equal responsibility to cook the meal. The cookbook was a creative solution that aimed to impact the ingrained gender inequality in India and enable couples to celebrate their love in a fair and equal way. It worked too with over 100 million better halves reached and a 13% rise in orders for Swiggy Instamart who through the campaign successfully positioned itself as the go-to grocery delivery service for Indian homes.

One-Star Cookbook | Deliveroo UAE | ‿  And Us

Deliveroo UAE released the One-Star Cookbook, a unique cookbook featuring dishes inspired by real one-star reviews of delivery disasters. Developed by Dubai agency, ‿ and us, the cookbook highlighted the importance of delivery in the overall dining experience. The cookbook contained 36 unique recipes, each designed to act as a reminder of what Deliveroo works tirelessly to avoid and to reinforce the importance of delivery for any dish.