July 21, 2009

Le Gourmet serves up branded content to viewers
Site overhaul aimed at engaging consumers

About 18 months ago, Le Gourmet TV was launched to provide recipe, food and drink related content in a high quality video format that consumers would want to watch.

“This ‘branded content’ is entertaining, engaging, and informative to viewers and consumers who want to learn about food, wine, and other beverages,” says Executive Producer Glen Powell. “We can engage consumers with a branded message, at the point when they are searching for product information online.”

The main objective was to syndicate this content across the web so that it was searchable by anyone with access to the internet. The secondary plan was the creation of a destination site.

“So while we were honing content, and working out what engages consumers in the realm of web video, our portal site languished,” says Powell. “It got a bit embarrassing as we saw our viewer base grow organically - watching our video on syndication sites, then searching back to find our home-site - while our home site wasn’t all that pretty or user friendly.”

All that changed last week when Le Gourmet TV launched its newly-designed website that features better style, better navigation and improved search engine optimization.

“Our weekly numbers continue to grow, and we’ve also moved into the realm of Twitter which is driving traffic to our site and also to sites that we ‘tweet’ about.”

All the while, Le Gourmet’s Toronto-based HD film crew is out shooting new content so they can deliver 3 new segments a week.