Why New York Times Cooking is partnering with Instacart

The New York Times and Instacart have cooked up a new partnership as a way for both brands to reach new consumers by making the media company’s recipes shoppable. When users visit a New York Times Cooking recipe page, they will see a link to shop ingredients on Instacart. An Instacart page will open and allow them to choose a grocery store and the ingredients from the recipe they need to have delivered. The feature will roll out in the New York Times Cooking app soon. New York Times Cooking is hoping the partnership will help it gain ground with busy home cooks who may have viewed Cooking recipes as more challenging, “project-based” meals with difficult-to-find ingredients. “We want to become a habit and make our subscription more valuable,” said Camilla Velasquez, general manager for New York Times Cooking. “We see in user feedback and comments that they say, ‘I wish I could make this, but I don’t have that ingredient that will make the recipe.’ This was a natural evolution to make ingredients more accessible and there was a gap in that journey.” Recent news: Instacart, NBCU to link CPG data with media buys Instacart has worked to get those ingredients to customers quickly. More than 80% of Instacart delivery orders are on-demand, with a median delivery time of less than 50 minutes, according to Instacart’s first-quarter letter to shareholders. For comparison, in 2017, the majority of Instacart delivery orders were scheduled four or more hours in advance. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The Times-Instacart deal came about after data from both brands showed that there was not a lot of overlap between New York Times Cooking and Instacart users, but they were similar demographics, according to Laura Jones, Instacart’s chief marketing officer. The New York Times has also focused on giving subscribers more recipes around “investment ingredients”—think miso, gochujang, harissa, or other ingredients that might be infrequently used. “We know that people invest in that ingredient and they want inspiration for how to use it again,” said Velasquez. “With the developer platform, we can see top-viewed recipes and what they ended up shopping for and try to give them more value out of those items.” The move comes at a time when consumers are having to make budgeting decisions, choosing how much to spend on items such as media subscriptions and groceries as inflation eats into purchasing power. Consumers are weary of high prices at restaurants including fast-food chains, giving more incentive to cook at home. But they may find it hard to get to the grocery store, which is where Instacart delivery would come in. Marketing plan includes Instacart+ discount New York Times Cooking subscribers can use the service without belonging to Instacart+, which is the delivery app's membership program. However, as an enticement, New York Times Cooking subscribers will get 50% off their first year of Instacart+, while Instacart+ users will get a free year of New York Times Cooking. Instacart+ memberships normally cost $99 per year, while the cost of a New York Times Cooking membership is $50 per year. New York Times Cooking will be one of the first brands to use Instacart’s developer platform that was announced earlier this year. The developer platform is a publicly available API that will allow third-party brands to integrate Instacart into their websites. While all of the New York Times Cooking recipes will be shoppable, only a handful of the most popular recipes will appear in the Instacart app. Promos for the deals will appear across New York Times’ owned channels, including a website homepage takeover, an ad in the Sunday print edition, as well as ads in Times newsletters and podcasts. Instacart will also run ads across its platforms. This is not Instacart’s first time working with publishers. The grocery and goods delivery giant has a partnership with Peacock—Instacart members in the U.S. get access to Peacock Premium. Last month, Instacart and NBCU expanded that partnership for advanced audience targeting, and Instacart also partnered with Home Depot for same-day delivery. In 2022 and 2023, Instacart partnered with Hearst Publications, Food52 and Dotdash Meredith. 40 under 40 entries are open The final deadline for nominations is Aug. 2 Enter here

Why New York Times Cooking is partnering with Instacart

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