Challenge
Make the humble cookbook an engaging digital experience. This was the challenge that Deepend was given when global book publisher, Hardie Grant came looking for an agency to make their idea, a reality. Hardie Grant is renowned for their vast
array of publications in the food and wine categories and Cooked.com.au was the natural progression in taking their print publications online. The biggest challenge for this project was ensuring the site could expand at the same rate that
Hardie Grant published more titles.
Solution
Deepend created a bespoke, digital database that handled every cookbook, author profile, image, glossary entry and any other publication-specific content. Built on a custom Sitecore platform, the site allows editorial updates and complete
flexibility when it comes to content presentation. Users are presented with more than just a recipe, they are given an online cooking community. This is achieved through author curated content, editorials and social media integration.
Result
Cooked.com.au received 75,000 visitors in the first month alone. A strong focus was placed on user growth acceleration which resulted in acquiring over 20,000 email sign-ups and 40,000 facebook fans prior to the site launching. These numbers
have consistently climbed since launch. Cooked.com.au has become a unique and innovative business model in the typically traditional industry of book publishing. Due to the success of Cooked.com.au the Hardie Grant team have already
made plans to launch the site in the UK and the US.
