Winning the Perception Game with Blue Apron’s Integrated TV Strategy
The Challenge
Blue Apron was evolving its offering: relaunching the service without a required subscription, rolling out a refreshed site experience, and expanding into more flexible, chef-designed meal options that require minimal prep. The brand wanted to make sure shoppers understood that Blue Apron was no longer just a traditional “meal kit,” but a broader meal solution that could fit more everyday occasions.
To support that shift, Blue Apron needed to show up differently in the market, demonstrating that customers could “ditch the subscription,” order on their own terms, and still get the quality they expect. The joint brief with Tinuiti focused on three things: growing aided awareness, increasing next-month consideration, and driving cost per new visit (CPNV) down across TV, audio, and display (TVAD) channels, so budgets worked harder to bring in new customers rather than primarily re-engaging existing ones.
Results
368%
lift in “Blue Apron” searches on YouTube*
360%
increase in site visits from YouTube
34%
improvement in CPNV via OTT campaigns**
8%
increase in consideration
*According to a YouTube Search Lift Study
**From September to December 2025
Together, these gains show Blue Apron’s partnership with Tinuiti both lowered the cost of attracting new customers and materially increased interest in the brand and the broader meal-kit category.
How We Did It
Refocusing the strategy on new growth, not just performance
Together, Blue Apron and Tinuiti started by reframing the challenge: the goal was not simply to drive more “meal kit” orders, but to expand the brand’s role in a crowded meal-solutions market while proving that a more flexible, subscription-optional model could scale. The teams aligned KPIs around new visits and first purchases, deliberately excluding repeat activity, so that every decision could be judged on its contribution to net new growth.
Grounding the media plan in audience reality
The joint team used early performance readouts to understand which channels and partners were actually driving new visits, not just traffic. Those learnings informed how TVAD budgets were phased across OTT, streaming audio, linear TV, YouTube, and podcasts, and led to a decision to consolidate spend with the strongest-performing partners rather than maintain a broad but less effective network mix—very much in a love growth, hate waste mindset.
Using Bliss Point by Tinuiti to find and scale the right audiences
Within Bliss Point by Tinuiti, the teams used Customer Insights to refine the ideal customer profile and connect spend to networks and placements with matching demographics and high-intent users. KPIs and reporting were set up to surface only initial visits and first purchases, giving a clear read on which channels were expanding the customer base versus recycling existing interest. This shared measurement framework ensured that when dollars were reallocated, both teams could see exactly how that decision affected growth and efficiency.
Spend Smarter with Bliss Point by Tinuiti
Measurement tech that shows what’s driving growth—and exposes what’s holding it back.
Consolidating into top performers and optimizing creative
After the first phase of learning, Blue Apron and Tinuiti moved quickly to consolidate spend into the best-performing networks and formats. On OTT, a tightened November network mix led to a 34% month-over-month improvement in CPNV as weaker partners were removed. In streaming audio, applying learnings from September–October to the November–December mix drove a 30% improvement in CPNV versus earlier months. Linear TV saw similar gains: cutting underperforming networks resulted in a 20% drop in CPNV and a 3% improvement in CPP.
On YouTube, the team refined Demand Gen and Shorts throughout the fall, with December ultimately delivering 360% more visits than September. YouTube lift studies showed that Video View and Shorts campaigns contributed to a 368% lift in “Blue Apron” searches and a 63% lift in “meal kit” searches since September, indicating that the creative was driving both brand and category demand.
Outcomes
Tactical impact across channels
By the end of the test period, YouTube, OTT, audio, and linear TV were all contributing more efficiently to new-customer growth, with consolidation and creative optimization driving down CPNV and improving CPP where it mattered most. On the brand-health side, aided awareness increased 6%, and consideration climbed 8%, indicating that the work was improving both familiarity with Blue Apron and intent to try the more flexible, subscription-optional offer.
TV, Audio, and Display Advertising
Find out what’s coming in 2026 and beyond, and what marketers can do to be ready.
Partnership impact and a repeatable growth model
Just as important as the individual wins was how the joint team got there. By aligning on KPIs that focused on new growth, using Bliss Point by Tinuiti as a shared operating system, and being willing to ruthlessly consolidate into what worked, Blue Apron and Tinuiti translated the love growth, hate waste philosophy into day-to-day decisions. Performance dollars were not simply cut or added; they were reassigned to the channels, networks, and formats that demonstrably expanded the customer base and strengthened the brand.
The outcome is more than a single campaign story. Blue Apron now has a clearer framework for how TVAD and digital video should work together, for reading CPNV and brand lift in the context of new-customer growth, and for adjusting the media mix without losing sight of the bigger brand shift toward flexible, subscription-optional meals. For both teams, that shared playbook is the real proof of partnership and a foundation for future launches built to grow, not waste.
Why It Matters
Blue Apron’s challenge wasn’t just media efficiency; it was updating how the brand fit into a faster, more flexible meal-solutions landscape. By focusing on new-customer KPIs, using Bliss Point to ground decisions, and consolidating investments into what actually performed, the joint team improved channel economics and moved key brand metrics at the same time. The result is a repeatable approach Blue Apron can apply to future campaigns: test broadly, read performance through a growth lens, and then concentrate spend where it both reduces CPNV and strengthens awareness and consideration.
See Our Success Stories
