From digital food to cooking content

From Digital Food Brand to Cookery Content Studio

Chefclub is a great example of the meteoric rise of digital brands

With three Digital Brand of the Year Awards, over 20 different shows, and its unique positioning between food and entertainment, Chefclub is a prime example of the vast and varied power of digital brands, and their potential to move into the physical world of licensing, publishing, live events, and animation. Founded in 2016 by Thomas, Jonathan and Axel Lang, the global food-themed entertainment brand for families has grown into a hugely successful brand, with the mission of bringing families together in the kitchen, a real-life extension of their digital entertainment. Today, Chefclub is a 100-person cookery content studio, with ten in-house kitchen production sets. Their videos generate 2.5 billion views per month on social media (half in the US), and air on leading FAST and AVOD platforms like Pluto TV in the US, UK, Spain, France and Latin America, and Samsung TV Plus in France and Switzerland. Chefclub’s online leadership opened the door to a host of ancillary opportunities, chief among them are publishing, consumer products and live events. At first, the appeal of their videos led to a direct demand from viewers for cookbooks of the popular and fun recipes. To date Chefclub has published 25 cookbooks which have sold over 700,000 copies. They have been supplemented by cookery product ranges including a 50-piece Chefclub by Tefal range, spices and condiments, as well as cookie cutters, measuring cups, utensils and knives made for children. To emphasize the Chefclub experience even more, they are launching a first live event tour across France this fall with the European leader in shopping centers, Klepierre Shopping Malls. And finally, the huge popularity of the animated Chefclub Kids mascots provided the perfect foundation for the company’s new animation series launching at Mipcom. The series is inspired by the immersive universe of the Chefclub Kids’ channel, where entertaining recipes, zany kitchen characters and specially made utensils for little chefs have helped cooking become a new form of playtime that brings the whole family together. Marie-Laure Marchand, SVP Global Consumer Products and Business Development, commented, “Our origins as a digital brand provided us with an incredibly useful interactive relationship with our audience. Our social media outlets supply an ongoing dialogue with our fans and allow us to respond almost in real time to their preferences and tastes. The instant data feedback that social offers is especially valuable when you have – like we do – a full time studio dedicated to creating content, as well as publishing and consumer product development in-house. Thanks to this up-to-the-minute feedback loop, we can provide unique food & family content to a growing number of partners with ever-growing needs, which in turn provides us with more opportunities for licensing. For example, our wacky, loveable and identifiable Chefclub Friends’ characters have paved the way to new hybrid and animated series for kids, and our new animated series, launching at Mipcom, will be a key pillar for brand building.”