Warner Bros Discovery Leverages Shoppable Recipes to Boost Content Monetization

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is tapping contextual commerce to further monetize its recipe content.

The media giant is partnering with eCommerce solution provider Chicory, which integrates shopping ability into content, to enable consumers to purchase ingredients from its food-centric sites, FoodNetwork.com, Food.com and CookingChannelTV.com, per an announcement Thursday (March 9).

“We are thrilled to partner with Warner Bros. Discovery as their preferred recipe-based commerce media provider,” Chicory CEO and Co-founder Yuni Sameshima said in a statement. “In adding WBD to our network, we are able to improve monetization on their sites, help CPG brands reach more shoppers, and help readers more easily cook their favorite recipes.”

The integrations will include ad opportunities for consumer-packaged goods (CPG) brands, offering targeted in-recipe placements, creating an opportunity for WBD to drive more revenue from its culinary content.

The move comes as consumers increasingly turn to online channels to get their grocery needs met. Data from PYMNTS’ study “Changes in Grocery Shopping Habits and Perception,” which draws from a December survey of more than 2,400 U.S. consumers, finds that nearly half the population (46%) purchases at least some of their groceries online.

The study also finds that only 7% of consumers shop for groceries exclusively via eCommerce channels. However, that share has increased 36-fold since before the pandemic.

Indeed, Chicory has observed an increase in adoption, as Sameshima told PYMNTS in an interview earlier this year.

“In the past year, we’ve seen a nearly 20% increase in what we [call] add-to-carts — people adding products to their basket through our network,” Sameshima said. “And we’ve seen increased traffic on recipe sites towards the end of the year this year. So, we definitely have seen that shift [to home cooking].”

WBD is not the only media giant integrating commerce opportunities into its recipe content. In 2021, for instance, Meredith Corporation (later acquired by holding company IAC and merged with digital media company DotDash to form Dotdash Meredith) announced a partnership with Walmart to power shoppable food content.

Plus, last year, online grocery platform Instacart debuted Shoppable Recipes, a suite of product integrations that allow food creators to make their recipes shoppable on TikTok, Tasty and Hearst Magazines properties including Delish and Good Housekeeping.

The idea of shoppable recipes has been around for a long time. Yet, it is only in recent years that the technology has caught up to the concept, enabling seamless commerce integrations from a wide range of grocery retailers as well as a satisfactory fulfillment experience for consumers.

As far back as 2015, connected recipe company Yummly, later acquired by the Whirlpool Corporation, was trying to get the technology to catch on.

“Now that Instacart connects to our shopping list, Yummly removes any friction associated with choosing a recipe and making a meal. Consumers hit a button and send their list over to Instacart — they can have their list fulfilled in under an hour,” then-COO Brian Witlin told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview at the time. He added, “It also makes cooking a lot more accessible for people because it’s so convenient.”