The Success Story of the Israeli Look & Cook App

By: Assaf Gilad Translated from Calcalist (Israel). August 27, 2013
Translated by: Hanni Manor

The number of successful Israeli-developed applications ranking high on Apple’s App Store can be counted on one hand. And so far, there have been barely any Israeli applications promoted by Apple in the framework of the company’s public relations campaigns. The Look & Cook app, which is an e-cookbook starring Israeli chef Meir Adoni, is the exception. The application was featured in a campaign for the promotion of the iPad mini, conducted by Apple some six months ago [February 2013] and prominently advertised on billboards throughout the United States. While prior to the campaign, the Look & Cook app had been downloaded by thousands at a rate of a few hundred per week. Just a week after the campaign was launched, the cumulative number of downloads reached around 100,000.

The app was subsequently offered for free and promoted by banner ads on Apple’s App Store, under the lifestyle category. The number of the app downloads currently stands at 250,000.
The Look & Cook app was developed by Kinetic Art Ltd. It is the company’s first cookbook, and it is based on recipes by chef Meir Adoni — owner of the Tel Aviv Catit and Ha’Mizlala restaurants.
A digital cookbook

The Look & Cook iPad app is an e-manual for use during cooking itself, with the iPad lying on the kitchen counter. The app presents the preparation process of each of the recipes in both photographic images and video clips, and the user can browse through it using voice commands — by just saying “next” or “back” — while he is busy cooking.

The app also includes a collection of tools designed to help the user in the cooking process — from video demonstrations of cooking techniques and tips to automatic timers embedded into the various phases of the cooking. The [app development] company is managed by Oren Huberman (proper disclosure: Huberman is a former reporter and editor at Israeli daily Calcalist). Ronen Mizrahi and Amit Ferber, a stylist by profession, are in charge of the graphic design of the cookbooks, and food photographer Dan Peretz is responsible for the photography.

According to the company reports, the app is especially popular among users in the United States as well as — in descending order — in Germany, China, Canada, Australia, Britain and Israel. In Israel, the app ranks 11th in the iPad lifestyle category, while in the United States, it occupies the 234th slot under this category.

Kinetic Art CEO Oren Huberman has told Calcalist that the Look & Cook app will not remain free for long, and that the company shortly plans to launch bundles of recipes and content that will be marketed separately, at approximately $0.99 to $2.99 [per bundle]. In addition, the company has been working on other cookbooks by other chefs, from both Israel and the United States.

The next [e-] book by Kinetic Art about to hit the market is already in its last production stages. It has been prepared in collaboration with Israeli chef Erez Komarovsky and chef Yahaloma Levy. According to Huberman, the Look & Cook app is expected to be offered in the coming months — for the first time ever — for Android-based tablets, and later on, for iPhones and Android-based smartphones.

At the moment, the company’s revenues from targeted advertising of food and kitchen products through the app stand at tens of thousands of dollars per month. To date, Kinetic Art has raised $100,000 from [Israeli businessman] Dov Moran. In addition, it has launched a first fundraising round totaling over one million dollars.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/business/2013/09/mini-ipad-apple-application-cook-book.html