Hey, Startups: Food Network Wants Your Pitch!

I hope you're hungry, because this November, Advertising Age and Food Network are bringing tech startups, entrepreneurs, and creative technologists together to disrupt the food category, with one lucky winner set to receive $25,000 and a partnership with the media company. Over the past 20 years, Food Network has owned the national conversation about food and inspired millions to enjoy food everywhere. But as the very idea of food has become increasingly about where you live, it's time for America's most iconic food brand to reflect on this behavior shift -- and to be, put simply, more relevant locally. To do this, Food Network is tapping Ad Age 's understanding of the marketing, media and tech world to unearth new companies that can help power the cable channel's evolution. Prior Ad Age brand "hacks" have been focused on mobile, location-based and social technology, and major marketers such as American Express, Anheuser-Busch Inbev and LA-based agency Ignited have all gone under the startup microscope. But now Ad Age is drilling into food: from recipes to grocery shopping to restaurant discovery, Food Network's huge audience is ready for the next big thing. And that 's why we're inviting you to hack The Food Network. Based on submissions we receive over the next several weeks, we'll invite six startups to pitch new ideas, collaborations, partnerships, and creative integrations to a panel of top Food Network execs and industry pros. The best idea receives $25,000 to begin bringing the collaboration to life and gets your platform into the hands of Food Network consumers. Startups: This is your opportunity to tell Food Network what they're missing. Is it a missing app? A geographically aware tool? A new UI/UX approach to recipes? Is your idea and your tech the missing piece? The sky's the limit. Food Network's interests span everything from meal planning, to restaurants and dining, to reinventing the grocery shopping experience. Check out this brief for the full download and instructions to submit. Need some inspiration, check out the guys from Wendr, who won the chance to hack Anheuser Busch-InBev last April. The Wendr team has been working closely with Budweiser's technology innovation group since then to develop an upcoming product.

Hey, Startups: Food Network Wants Your Pitch!

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