• by Sara Guaglione , March 30, 2020

On Friday, video-focused travel and food brand Tastemadeannounced it was creating an original series featuring the culinary community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Called “Gratuity,” the weekly show is starting off as a YouTube audio series. It will soon transition to video.

In each episode, host Darin Bresnitz,Tastemade’s director of original series, will talk with a different restaurateur, chef, bartender, small business owner, farmer or member of the national food industry to share their stories on what has become their new reality.

“Gratuity” kicks off with two inaugural episodes, featuring The New Yorker's food correspondent Helen Rosner and Chef Royce Burke of Yarrow and Secret Lasagna.

Viewers will learn about the guest’s background, what issues are affecting their community, how they are coping with the spread of the virus and how viewers can help support those in need.

The series will air 30-minute episodes every Wednesday and Friday on Tastemade’s YouTube channel. 

Separately, Group Nine’s animal-focused brand The Dodo also announced last week a new series. The Dodo is partnering with Quibi on a daily series called “All The Feels.”  It premieres April 6, when Quibi, the mobile-first, short-form video platform, goes live.

“All The Feels” will highlight unique stories about animals, with different emotional content experiences for each day of the week, such as “Motivation Monday” and “Ugly Cry Tuesday.”

The Dodo will also serve as the anchor animal brand for Quibi’s "Daily Essentials," a curated slate of news, entertainment and inspirational programming.

"With so much negativity out there, ‘All The Feels’ offers a kind of emotional antidote -- a positive, uplifting content experience audiences can find relief in,” stated The Dodo’s founder-Chief Creative Officer Izzie Lerer.

The Dodo used internal platform analytics to determine the weekday ebb and flow of audience emotions, based on their reactions to content. For example, The Dodo found that videos of weird animals or animals doing unusual things outperformed on Thursdays, eliciting 20% more "wow" emoji reactions. 

The team then designed content verticals, like “WTF Thursday,” to give audiences what they seek each day of the week, according to the publisher.