Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. has launched its first iPhone application, Martha?s Everyday Food, to extend its brand and reach on-the-go consumers with shopping in mind.

The application is home to thousands of Everyday Food magazine recipes that can be shared, saved and organized into mobile shopping lists. Along with extending the brand, the application was launched to make meal planning and grocery shopping easier and more efficient for the on-the-go consumer.

?We look at the iPhone app as another extension of the opportunity to empower consumers to take great ideas from us, like recipes for everyday cooking, and bring them truly into the lives and aisles of grocery stores to make those recipes a reality,? said Janet Balis, executive vice president of media, sales and marketing at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, New York.

?To me this is all about ensuring our experience exists across all platforms such as on TV, radio magazines, digital and mobile,? she said. ?We want to bring to life all the inspiring ideas we offer consumers.?

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is a media and merchandising company that produces lifestyle content and products.

The publishing segment of the company encompasses four magazines, including the company's flagship publication, Martha Stewart Living, and Everyday Food. The company also produces "The Martha Stewart Show" and Martha Stewart Living Radio.

Martha helps with dinner
Martha's Everyday Food application joins the other Everyday Food branded properties such as the Everyday Food magazine, the "Everyday Food" television series, "Everyday Food Radio Show" on SIRIUS channel 112 and XM Radio 157 and the book ?Everyday Food: Great Food Fast.?

The company has been in talks with various consumer packaged goods companies for brand integration within the application.

Ms. Balis said she fully expects the application to be dually supported by the consumer through the download fee of 99 cents and from advertisers interested in having a dialogue with consumers while they are in grocery-shopping mode.

The application features daily alerts with dinner recipe ideas, cooking, shopping and serving tips from Ms. Stewart and her team.

Consumers can search and download thousands of Everyday Food recipes. The recipes feature photos optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Recipes can be shared via email and saved to a universal recipe box.

ZipList has been integrated into the application to let consumers create an online shopping list.

Consumers can add any recipe?s ingredients to a grocery list with one click.

Consumers can create multiple shopping lists by event, store or a user created segment.

The items of the shopping list can be sorted by aisle or category and prioritized by marking a level of importance, a feature that can make a quick shopping trip even shorter.

Via ZipList, consumers can share their recipe box or shopping lists with family and friends who can then add or remove items at http://www.ziplist.com.

The application also has a store locator that lets consumers locate nearby retailers using the device?s GPS technology or ZIP code search. The locator includes maps and driving directions.

The company is targeting its general demographic, which tends to be early-adopters and tech-savvy individuals.

The application is being promoted across all of the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia channels, including TV, radio, print and digital.

Mobilizing Martha
This is not the first time Martha Stewart experimented with mobile technology.

The November issue of Everyday Food magazine included mobile-activated advertisements from brands such as Welch?s, Uncle Ben?s, Johnsonville Sausage and California Pizza Kitchen.
 
On newsstands Oct. 26, the interactive Everyday Food issue, which was powered by SpyderLynk?s SnapTap technology, let readers snap a picture of any featured advertisement and send the picture to the number provided to get back content from an advertiser. Content included everything from recipes to Thanksgiving Day planning tips, thereby enhancing the value of the advertising placement and engaging consumers in a mobile dialogue (see story).

The company has plans for more SnapTap issues.

?The iPhone app is not an isolated strategy for mobile,? Ms. Balis said. ?We?re looking at a variety of mobile strategies to continue to enhance magazine content and develop our iPhone suite of applications.?