Social Media Campaign Review: Lufthansa Star Chef Recipe Contest

As brands use Facebook to make waves and stand out in the crowd, Lufthansa, a premiere airline has come up with an interesting contest, the Lufthansa Star Chef Recipe Contest that could be your gateway to Germany.

Objective:

The objective of the contest is to discover some innovative Indian recipes and kickstart the career of an aspiring chef.

Execution

The Star Chef Contest is hosted by an extensive Facebook application. The app does not require you to like the page, but the contest rules state that in order to be eligible you need to ‘Like’ the page . The app springs up with a clean and clear informative layout in the ‘home’ page. You can choose to navigate depending on what you want to do.

The ‘About contest’ section gives you all the details of the contest and the participation form. You can register by entering your personal details first. You can either upload your recipe in a doc format or provide the information asked in the form, like ’Recipe name’, ‘Ingredients’, ‘Portion size’, ‘Cooking time’, ‘Method’, etc. Add a picture and preview your recipe before you submit and voila you’re in!

The ‘Chef’s Pic of the Week’ section features the winning recipe of the week. You can share or invite your friends on Facebook here. The tab also features recipes by the Star Chefs themselves.

The ‘About Star Chefs & Jury’ section gives you all the information you might need on the Lufthansa Star Chef programme and the eminent chefs in the jury. While the ‘Nutrition tips’ section lists the nutritive value of spices and tips on preserving nutrition while cooking.

You can read the ‘Terms & Conditions’ by clicking on the link at the bottom of the app.

A panel of star chefs, – Kunal Kapur, Surender Mohan and Thomas Brockenauer will pick 15 best recipes based on taste, presentation and innovation, these will be up for voting by Facebook fans. Next up, the ‘Top 8’ recipes with the highest Facebook votes will be invited to a live cooking contest judged by the chef trio, in the Grand Finale at The Leela in Mumbai.

The winning recipe will be featured in the Lufthansa in-flight menu as well as select restaurants at the Leela Mumbai and Gurgaon. As creator of that winning recipe, you could be the lucky one to win a free trip to Germany to visit the LSG Sky Chefs and a 3 night hotel stay.

The icing on the cake is that you could also win a 3 month internship at one of The Leela Hotels.

The recipe contest has some goodies for weekly winners too. Chosen as the ‘Chef’s Pick of the Week’, weekly winners stand to win kitchen appliances worth Rs. 5000 or more!

Positives

The campaign, as a concept is exciting, interactive as well as rewarding for participants.  Both talent and public voting, blend together in the selection of the winner which is why the Lufthansa Star Chef Recipe contest can be called “social” executed  in every sense of the word.   The Facebook app is well designed and is in sync with the look and feel so characteristic of Lufthansa.

Scope for Improvement

Some of the T&Cs, like “The final winner’s recipe may or may not make it to the Lufthansa in-flight menu” leave room for ambiguity.  This could raise doubts in the minds of the aspirants.

Also, if someone is a good cook and truly innovative but doesn't have a big network of friends on Facebook, standing a chance to win in public voting might seem daunting.

Conclusion

All in all the campaign is interesting as it blends an airline with food, the possibility of having a recipe featured in the in flight menu of Lufthansa is a refreshing addition to the obvious goodies associated with an airline contest, free tickets and hotel stays.

Lufthansa India is clearly making an attempt to become a preferred airline for travelers flying out of India.  On 6 August 2012, Lufthansa brought the all new Boeing 747-8 to Delhi making India the first Asian country and the 2nd destination worldwide to receive the new aircraft and new full-flat Business Class seats.  With social media initiatives like the Lufthansa Star Chef Recipe Contest, the brand has cleverly tied up Indian food and provided a platform to promote talented Indian chefs while ensuring that its flying services are in the reckoning for the discerning Indian flyer.