The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2016–2017
IKEA printed recipes on parchment so portions are paint-by-numbers
Cook This Page put edible-ink recipes on baking paper; 12,500 books in 18 stores vanished in hours; D&AD and One Show wins.
IKEA Canada
The solution
IKEA sold the ingredients and kitchenware, but novice cooks were afraid of recipes: measuring, timing and technique felt like failure waiting to happen. A normal solution would be another recipe booklet or cooking class.
Instead, IKEA Canada and Leo Burnett printed recipes directly onto parchment paper with food-safe ink, drawing each ingredient's shape at its exact portion size. Cooks simply filled in the outlines, rolled the paper into the oven, and pulled out a finished meal. The recipe was the packaging, and the packaging was the cooking tool.
The 12,500 recipe books distributed across 18 Canadian IKEA stores were snapped up within hours, and the idea became the year's most-shared food marketing: it earned a D&AD Professional Award and, at Cannes 2017, an Outdoor Gold plus three more Lions, with recognition at One Show and Andy Awards.
Why it worked
- Measuring was automated by drawn portion circles, killing the main fear
- The parchment doubled as the cooking vessel, so the recipe was also the product demo
- 12,500 books in 18 Canadian stores vanished within hours, proving demand
- Awards turned a store flyer into globally reported news
What can be applied
When the barrier is fear of getting it wrong, remove the skill step: redesign the instruction so following it is automatic, and the product sells itself.
Aftermath
Cook This Page won a D&AD Professional Award, Cannes Lions 2017 Outdoor Gold plus three more Lions, and recognition at ADC, One Show and Andy Awards — becoming one of the decade's most-cited examples of packaging as media.
Sources
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