eMeals Launches New Brand-Building Program

In a bid to help food and beverage companies increase penetration in the online grocery channel, Tyson Foods, The Coca-Cola Co. and Francis Ford Coppola Winery are among the first brands to sign on to a new promotional program from the Birmingham, Ala.-based digital meal planning service eMeals.

Through a combination of recipe discovery with the service’s 15 weekly meal plans, shoppable recipe content with brand placement on eMeals shopping lists, and associated promotional opportunities, eMeals’ BrandBuilder program seeks to grow online brand sales.

Tyson Foods is using the BrandBuilder program to drive online visibility and sales of its Tyson Chicken, Hillshire Farm and Ball Park Franks brands. Coca-Cola is highlighting categories of its beverages within the new eMeals Beverage add-to-cart functionality, and Francis Ford Coppola Winery is leveraging the eMeals platform to boost brand recognition and online purchases through recommended wine pairings for select meals.

When an eMeals subscriber selects a recipe in any of the Tyson product categories or with a suggested Coca-Cola or Coppola beverage pairing, the branded recommendations are automatically placed on the weekly eMeals shopping list for easy one-tap online grocery fulfillment by Walmart, Kroger, Amazon, Instacart or Shipt or for in-store shopping.

eMeals is driven by recipes, “enabling brands to contextually enter the purchasing flow by starting with meal inspiration and then automatically integrating branded products into weekly shopping lists that drive both online and offline grocery sales,” according to a company statement, which further noted the potential to double sales of suggested brands in online grocery carts.

The BrandBuilder program also offers comprehensive shopping analytics, providing basket insights such as which products are purchased through the eMeals app as well as which online grocery services are used.

“eMeals has one of the best integrations I’ve seen for shoppable recipes, and that is helping us remove some of the friction between recipe inspiration and the actual grocery purchase,” said Genevieve Mazzeo, manager of digital commerce for Tyson Foods, in a statement. “The more friction we can remove, the better for us as a manufacturer, for our retail partners and ultimately for our shoppers.”

eMeals subscribers have access to 15 food style meal plans, each with new weekly dinner ideas that can be mixed and matched from plan to plan. Based on the selected meal choices, the eMeals app automatically generates a grocery list that can be shopped in-store or, with one click, sent for pickup or delivery by one of the integrated grocery retailers.

“Wine and eMeals go together. We love the branded content from eMeals,” said Jennifer Leitman, EVP of strategic planning for Francis Ford Coppola Winery, in a statement. “It’s a seamless shoppable consumer experience that we’re able to amplify through engaging retail activations and our social media campaigns.”