Brand marketers are beginning to catch on to the hype that is sweeping up huge masses of social-media followers.
Recently, I have been spending my free time scouring the internet for miniature-cooking videos. Everything is real — from furniture and kitchenware to food and seasonings. Of course, the chefs are real too. The food cooked in these videos is even smaller than (adult) bite-size; you hardly feel like you’ve eaten anything, even after gorging down a whole plate of fried noodles.
Whenever possible, mini-size replacements like quail eggs, baby carrots and pearl onions are used instead of their larger cousins — hen eggs, “adult” carrots and onions:
Otherwise, ingredients are carved out to mini-sizes while kitchenware and furniture are custom-built:
The miniature-cooking videos are a spin-off of the general miniature “sub-culture” that has been around for some time. A Google search on “miniatures” gives us results of almost everything we can think of, in mini versions of course — food, furniture, dolls and figures, animals and plants, houses, musical instruments, vehicles and boats, books, etc. Miniatures are commonly considered handicrafts, collectibles or simply appreciated as they are. They are also displayed in museums or other venues to tell a story.
With the advent of YouTube and other video-sharing platforms, we are seeing more animated miniatures featured in videos. Miniature-cooking videos take the practice a step further, featuring real-life cooking with tiny, edible food.
Unsurprisingly, the trend started in Japan, where people, whether they are women/men or children/adults, fancy anything kawaii (pronounced ka-wa-eee, meaning cute). One of the most popular Japanese miniature-cooking YouTube channels is Miniature Space, which has gained widespread media exposure around the world. Its menu offers a wide range of delicacies from Japanese cuisine, such as Oyakudon (親子丼/chicken and scrambled eggs on rice) and Sushi (寿司), to Western choices like Galette and chocolate mousse. Each video has amassed a few million views and hundreds or thousands of likes. The chefs are not much different from regular chefs — they are even fussy in terms of which knife to use.
But the trend is not limited to Japan or Asia, as we can also see miniature-cooking shows from places where “cuteness” is not appreciated as much by adults. For example, American artist Jay Baron frequently showcases his miniature recipes like lasagne, among other dishes. At the time of writing, the lasagne video has gathered 381,052 views on YouTube, and close to 5 million views and 470,000+ shares on Facebook.
So what make these videos so entrancing, almost therapeutic, to watch?
1) The dishes are familiar to viewers. Many of them are considered comfort food that we would turn to when we need a bit of consolation or an escape from hectic life.
2) Creativity and imagination — while we can be as creative as we want in designing the settings and presenting the food, familiarity with the recipe makes it easy for viewers to imagine ourselves as “mini-food chefs.”
3) Incongruity between tiny food/settings and human-sized hands make the videos look even more real — it’s proof that they are not computer-generated. In some cases, the chefs need to use real life-sized ingredients or cooking utensils since there is no replacement (e.g., the blender at 0:54 in this video).
4) The settings and props often invoke a sense of nostalgia. We can all remember playing home-chefs, cooking dinners for our parents and making them (pretend to) eat when we were kids. Other nostalgic memories are cultural. For example, Video #1 below shows us a classic Hong Kong Dai Pai Dong (open-air food market). In video #2, we can see street food carts on a Hong Kong street. Video #3 shows us a Cha Chaan Teng (Hong Kong-style tea café) while Video #4 is a traditional Hong Kong dim sum restaurant with dim sum push carts. All of these videos present Hong Kong dishes that are not only popular among Hong Kong people, but also tourists. However, #1 and #2 have become rarer since the government started enforcing stricter food-hygiene laws. For #4, most of the dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong now are made to order so we don’t get to choose from the carts anymore. In all of the videos produced by this series, hkminichef, real recipes are used and shown at the end of the shows.
Another factor that some scientists attribute to people’s fascination with watching miniature-cooking videos is ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). A satisfying sense of control while watching the chefs work with mini food and kitchenware, their unrelenting focus and attention to detail, and their striving for perfection can all trigger ASMR in viewers. According to Steven Novella, a neurologist, ASMR is
“a pleasurable and calming tingling sensation in the back of the head. It is often called a brain orgasm, or braingasm (which I think is a bit misleading, since the regular kind of orgasm occurs in the brain with some peripheral manifestations). … (The triggers to ASMR) all seem to engage the same networks of the brain — that part of us that interacts carefully and thoughtfully with our environment or with other people. There is something calmly satisfying about such things.”
Professor Novella also lists some examples that may trigger ASMR, including actions, sounds, touches or tastes:
1. Watching another person complete a task. Often, this is performed diligently and attentively (e.g., cooking with miniature food and kitchenware);
2. Listening to slow, accented or unique speech patterns;
3. Enjoying a piece of art or music;
4. Feeling the touch from another person on one’s head or back.
While further tests and studies are needed, such as the use of MRI scans, ASMR provides a basis to begin understanding the phenomenon.
Can brand marketers benefit from this trend?
A Swedish beer brand, Norrlands Guld Ljus, recently created an audio experience to trigger a “brain orgasm,” featuring a woman talking Swedish in a soothing voice. The clip is available on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music.
Across the continent in Asia, I have been able to find three examples of ad campaigns using miniature cooking videos:
Lee Kum Kee: Quality Never Compromised
Lee Kum Kee, a Hong Kong brand of cooking sauces founded in 1888, has launched a two-part campaign positioning around quality and attention to detail: “Quality Never Compromised.” Phase one of the campaign launched in 2015 while phase two, which features a series of miniature-cooking videos of familiar Hong Kong dishes, launched in mid-2016. The campaign covers 17 markets across Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand, the United States and Europe.
Quaker Oats’ Product Placement
To dispel the common notion that oatmeal tastes bland, Quaker Oats has been sharing recipes online, some of which are submitted by consumers. In the latest recipe, Quaker grabs the opportunity of being the first brand to place its products in hkminichef (煮吧煮飯仔), teaching us how to make oatmeal, ham, cheese and egg pancakes for breakfast. Hkminichef has been gaining a lot of exposure lately, especially with its Chinese-speaking audience, for its focus on traditional Hong Kong dishes against a backdrop of familiar Hong Kong settings. While the pancakes made with Quaker oatmeal aren’t a traditional Hong Kong dish, oatmeal porridge made with hot milk and sugar is a regular item on local Cha Chaan Tengs’ breakfast menus.
Singapore Airlines: Bringing You the Finest Flavours of the World
This campaign showcases miniature dishes from around the world alongside their full-size counterparts; they are available from Singapore Airlines’ “Book the Cook” menu. A few signature Singaporean dishes are also featured, such as Satay cooked over hot charcoal and Coorgi Murgh Korma (Coorgi Chicken Curry). The miniature food resonates well with the campaign: “No Detail Too Small.”
Tastemade
Tastemade is an online video network offering food and travel related programmes. The California-based company was launched in 2012. Tastemade’s cooking videos are streamed on its own website, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. Inspired by the hype of Japanese miniature-food videos, Tastemade has produced a series called Tiny Kitchen, now in its 7th season with over 50 episodes. In addition to making miniature-cooking videos, Tastemade also sells original-size and mini cookbooks, such as Tiny Cookbook, and tiny stoves that appear in the shows.
Inspirations for Brand Marketers?
Obviously, furniture, kitchenware and appliance brands can feature their products in mini versions.
Riding on the “cuteness” factor, healthcare brands or government-health departments can use miniature-cooking videos to promote healthy eating among children. Using simple recipes encourages children to cook with their parents, enhancing family bonds.
To build awareness and closer engagement with younger consumers, who may shun Chinese medicine, miniature-cooking videos can be made around the concept of “natural food treatment” (食療) — a holistic approach in Chinese medicine based on eating natural foods that can be used alongside (herbal) medicine for the prevention or treatment of diseases. An example of a Chinese (herbal) medicine brand (in ready-to-take format) is PuraPharm.
Other examples include hospitality brands positioning around attention to detail and service to the heart, and automobile brands positioning around precision.
There are still opportunities before the ad space gets overcrowded with miniature-cooking videos. With a bit of creativity, marketers, even those in non-food categories, can also join in the hype.
