Digital Cooking Brands Turn Up the Heat

Digital-native cooking brands have been expanding their licensing activities in the last year. The properties tend to appeal to a young-adult demographic that needs accessible information and inspiration to prepare healthy and good-tasting meals. They have large and active fan bases across YouTube, Instagram, and other social channels, as well as on their own websites and apps. Importantly for licensees, they use data from these communities to develop products their followers will want. They typically feature an irreverent and fun tone, which is reflected in the bright colors of their licensed products. And they have deep reserves of content that can be used to add value to their branded merchandise.

Some of the digital cooking brands involved in licensing include:

• Buzzfeed’s Tasty, which expanded its international licensing presence in 2020. It signed a cookware and kitchenware line in Australia with Fackelmann, sold through Big W stores, via agency Haven Global, and launched a limited-edition, six-SKU cookware range at Tesco in the U.K. and a 50-piece cookware, bakeware, and utensil collection at Kaufland in Germany, both brokered by agent Licensing Global Matters. In 2018, the company licensed Epoca International for a line of kitchenware available exclusively at Walmart, which debuted with more than 90 cookware, bakeware, and accessories items. Tasty also has expanded into some categories outside the kitchen, such as board games with Buffalo Games, part of a broader Buzzfeed deal. In 2020, Buzzfeed’s retail sales of licensed merchandise totaled around $400 million annually, according to the company, with more than 5 million Tasty kitchenware units and 1 million Tasty cookbooks sold.
• Hearst’s Delish, which is represented by IMG for licensing. In October 2020, Hearst and IMG announced a license with Dash, the housewares brand owned by innovation company StoreBound, for a line of cookware and appliances under the Delish by Dash name, starting with a stand mixer. That followed a 2019 partnership with Robinson Home Products for bakeware, cookware, dinnerware, flatware, barware, and kitchen tools, sold through a DTC site, DelishEssentials.com, operated by Robinson. There have also been two cookbooks, as well as two limited-edition, keto-friendly flavors of ice cream through a deal with Beyond Better Foods’ Enlightened brand.
• Chefclub, a global digital cooking brand headquartered in France. It announced licensing deals, with Groupe SEB and Upyaa!, in January 2021. SEB is selling a 50-plus-SKU range of cookware, small appliances, and kitchen gadgets under the Chefclub by Tefal brand, with distribution in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K., as well as Canada, South Korea, Brazil, and Mexico. Upyaa! is offering culinary toys under the Chefclub Kids brand throughout Europe. Last month Chefclub announced an agreement with License Connection to represent the property in the Benelux countries, after naming four global agents in 2020 (Maverick Products in North America, Active Merchandising in Germany, Caravanserai in Spain and Portugal, and ETS in Italy). It retained Brands With Influence as its agent in the U.K. in 2019.
• Jungle Creations’ Twisted, the U.K. social-media food and drink brand, which retained Golden Goose in January to represent it for licensing in both food and non-food categories. The property has already inspired a bestselling cookbook, published in 2016 by Ryland Peters & Small, as well as a delivery-only restaurant, Twisted London. The latter operates from several ghost kitchens around London and opened its first counter operation (also offering delivery) inside an Asda store in the Clapham Junction neighborhood in late 2020.
• Marmiton, the top social media food brand in France, launched in 1999. It is now represented for consumer products extensions by TF1 Licences, the licensing division of the French TV channel. In addition to its digital presence, Marmiton has expanded into a magazine with 5.8 million readers in France, cookbooks that have generated more than 2 million units in sales, and into traditional TV, with a show airing on TF1. TF1 has said it expects a license for kitchen utensils to be announced soon.

The expansion of these digital-native cooking and food brands in the past year makes sense, as the COVID-19 lockdown brought a lot of new consumers into the cooking space for the first time, leading them to rely more than ever on digital channels for how-to information. It stands to reason that some of these new amateur chefs will continue to prepare meals at home post-pandemic and will need additional cookware and gadgets to help them succeed in the kitchen. They are likely to gain confidence in purchasing the tools they need by turning to the same brands they have trusted for recipes and instructions as they learned to cook.