Oreo and Digitas join hands to generate UGC, recreate it in engaging video cookery content format

The year 2020 needs no introduction. But between the Covid madness, the lockdown also sparked people’s creativity in the kitchen. Searches for Oreo recipes – simple snacks to elaborate desserts — were on an all-time high. The humble (and versatile) cookie became someone’s cocoa powder, someone’s ready crust, someone’s topping, someone’s playful twist to a recipe. Oreo was at the cusp of growing its equity in the kitchen. The Oreo ReciPic Challenge was conceptualised by Team POP, led by Digitas, to position the cookie as a baking staple in people’s minds, and pantries.

The brand created the platform #OreoReciPic for people to not just win the grand prize but have their recipe featured in a cooking show. All they had to do was share their Oreo creations – no ingredients, no steps. Just a picture. Professional celebrity pastry chef Pooja Dhingra was tasked with recreating the winning dishes, and fan-favourite comedian and our host, Rohan Joshi added some fun to the mix.

The three recipe webisodes:

Sudhanshu Nagpal

Sudhanshu Nagpal, Associate Director, Marketing (Biscuits), Mondelez India, said, “As lockdown extended, we saw people finding themselves having fun in the kitchen as a way to break the daily monotony. This led to a rise in the number of mentions for Oreo and users started sharing their recipes and love for the brand organically. We saw this as an opportunity to do something exciting for them while strengthening our philosophy of enabling playful connections. #OreoReciPic, conceptualised by the team, was a great way to create an engaging platform that not just helped make Oreo synonymous with desserts, but also celebrated people’s growing creativity in the kitchen, while creating content that was fun even for non-bakers.”

In a cluttered content universe, Digitas rightly identified a unique pairing of creativity and camaraderie in the kitchen to stand out yet stay close to the brand. Each episode follows real-life friends, Rohan Joshi and Pooja Dhingra, attempting to replicate a winning dish from its picture with some interesting results. The humour and the opportunity to see an expert bring a picture alive on a plate together made for a heady concoction of delicious entertainment.

Mark Mcdonald

Mark Mcdonald, Executive Vice-President and Creative Head, Digitas India, explained how the idea couldn’t have come in at a better time. He said, “At the back of the ‘At Home With Oreo’ campaign, we stoked a fire to cook with the cookie. #OreoReciPic was a level up, and not just leveraged but multiplied a growing trend manifold. Serving the winning recipes through a unique device of ‘guessing from a picture’ made even long-format webisodes thoroughly entertaining to watch. Of course, selecting the right influencers was also important and we believe this was a winning selection. As for ‘Oreo ReciPic’, I believe this asset is not just ever-growing but self-sustaining in the long run.”