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Greg ShoveCEO, Founder Halogen Media

Group

Cooks’ NetworkSocial Influence Program

Social Media Insider SummitAugust 20, 2011

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Williams-Sonoma: Cooks’ Network Architects

Katherine 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.”

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What? • Branded content delivery network to food communities.

Why? • To gain relevance among younger, connected consumers.• Extend the brand experience to where the foodies are.• Earn social outcomes across the power middle of food publishers.

Cooks’ Network Social Influence Program

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EDITORS

FANS & FOLLOWERS

About 5K food/cooking bloggers within the target.

13% of all bloggers create 80% of all product-related

posts

13% 80%

Source: North American Empowerment Online Survey Q4, 2009

The Power Middle

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Cooks’ Network: Version 1.0

• Create value proposition for publishers and consumers

• Identify, recruit and approve social publishers

• Spec and build scalable and self-service platform

• Identify and test content, formats and creative

• Create and streamline publisher on-boarding process

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brand provides authentic content

content pulled into widgets in real-time

social, earned media

outcomes

How it works

over 500 publishers select

from custom widgets based on

site’s content

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Sample Content Widgets

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Cooks’ Network: Program Components• Consistent, fresh content on editorial schedule• Technology platform• Influencer management

INFLUENCERNETWORK

ACTIVATORPLATFORM

BRAND CONTENT, PROMOTIONS,

SAMPLES

THEWEB

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Cooks’ Network: KPI’s

Distribution/Media

• Publishers in program

• Monthly uniques

• Monthly pageviews

• Inbound links/bloggers

• Traffic back to Williams-Sonoma.com

Consumer Engagement/Research

• User Engagements

• Shares/Likes

• New emails captured

• Feedback

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Distribution– Active Publishers

Apr-0

6

May

-06

Jun-

06

Jul-0

6

Aug-

06

Sep-

06

Oct-0

6

Nov-0

6

Dec-0

6

Jan-

07

Feb-

07

Mar

-07

Apr-0

7

May

-07

Jun-

07

Jul-0

70

50

100

150

200

250

Cooks’ Network Publishers

Summer LullHoliday Spike

Projected Growth

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KPI’s so far:

26M + Earned Impressions

Over 175,000 Brand Engagements: views, shares, clicks

CTR and Engagement Rates are 3 X’s display averages

Best performing content widgets: recipes and video.

 

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What Cooks’ Network Bloggers Want

• On-going relationship with a trusted, relevant brand

• Currency to be offered to their audiences

Having the Williams-Sonoma brand/logo on your site

Additional content for your site

Running aesthetically pleasing widgets on your site

The opportunity to be part of a community

The opportunity to have a connection / relationship with Williams-Sonoma

Receiving 10% commission on all referral sales

Having a back link on Williams-Sonoma.com (link back)

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

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Cooks’ Network: Publisher Recognition

Publishers want recognition and link backs.

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Cooks’ Network: Lessons Learned

• Offer compelling social currency that bloggers can share with their audience• Relationship goes both ways – pull content from bloggers• Invest in unique brand content – this is harder/ more expensive than anticipated•Invest in a publisher retention strategy•Solve operational challenges with platform – enables scale and analytics

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Cooks’ Network V2: Platform Functionality

• Facebook integration• Blogger points system and leader board• Auto-detection of influencer activity• Robust analytics around content amplification

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Cooks’ Network V2: Content and Distribution• Use blogger content on Williams-Sonoma.com

• More frequent content updates– with more customization of widgets by the blogger

• More insider sales and unique offers to blogger communities

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Cooks’ Network V2: Influencer Hub

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works for lots of brands, lots of influencers

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What’s Next: Influencers & Superfans