The McCormick Flavor Maker app: Discover new dishes, recipes, and inspiration

Challenge

McCormick came to Grey and ArcTouch in the midst of digital transformation. The 130-year-old leader in the flavor industry was looking to take advantage of mobile and digital technology to engage with their customers in new ways.

The original app idea was to use mobile as a means to augment the shopping experience by allowing customers to scan the brand’s world-class spices on store shelves and get more information about them.

During an in-person discovery session led by ArcTouch, that kernel of an idea evolved into a digital journey, rich with storytelling and engaging content, meant to inspire greatness in the kitchen and extend back to the fields where spices originate.

Solution

Now available for iOS and coming soon for Android, the Flavor Maker app allows you to scan your McCormick spices and build your “digital pantry.” You can find recipes based on your spices. And the app goes much further.

It includes thousands of recipe ideas and content to inspire your inner chef. It also has an integrated shopping cart. If you see a recipe you like, you can easily add ingredients to a shopping list. You can also make online purchases of items in your shopping cart with services like Instacart and Amazon Fresh -- because the app includes an integration with Whisk.

Flavor Maker also includes a virtual reality feature, with VR video content that tells stories about the source of McCormick’s spices and flavor products. The “Fields of Vision” series shares where and how spices originate — including spotlighting the people and regions that produce the ingredients.

Other key features include:

• Articles and videos, including cooking tips and tutorials
• Product ingredients and nutritional information
• “My recipes” allows you to save favorites and create custom collections

ROI

The app has been a central part of McCormick's digital transformation, helping the company earn the #1 ranking among food brands — and the only “Genius” status — in the recent Gartner L2 Digital IQ Index.

In the iOS App Store, the Flavor Maker app has a 4.6 rating.

Our client is ecstatic about the work the ArcTouch team continues to do:

“We approached Grey and ArcTouch with a rather simple idea — how do we engage consumers at-shelf and make it possible for consumers to scan our products to get more information,” said Tom Rowe, McCormick’s digital marketing operations manager. “Their teams helped bring it to life with a compelling app experience that was beyond expectations. From strategy to execution to ongoing support, they continue to be tremendous partners in our digital transformation.”