When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down many aspects of daily life in March, women-focused Betches took the crisis as an opportunity to develop a deeper connection with its audience.

The social-first publisher, which has seen growth across both audience numbers and advertising during the pandemic, created a new lineup it dubs “Quarantainment,” a slate of programming meant for viewers stuck at home. The lineup includes daily podcast “Sup Daily Coronacast,” the Quarantine IG Daily Trivia Game, video series like COVIDeos and workout content in partnership with Obé Fitness.

Since launching its “Quarantainment” programming, Betches has signed on eight new advertisers, including Stella Artois, Noom and TurboTax and brought along 61.5% of brands across all its platforms to the new lineup.

According to Aleen Kuperman, cofounder-CEO of Betches, the company has seen a high six-figure increase in revenue with 50% of content running in Q2 2020, alongside a 35.2% increase in engagement across its 13 social-media accounts. Ecommerce for Betches has clocked a 91% increase in conversion and a 300% increase in sales, compared to this time last year.

In addition to those numbers, Betches has turned its partnership with Obé Fitness into what it hopes will be an ongoing collaboration through and after the pandemic.

The Betches team had been looking for ways to partner with Obé Fitness before the pandemic, reconnecting with the brand’s growth and consumer acquisitions team for a brainstorming session in February. Through that meeting, they decided the best place to build community and conversation about Obé was on Betches “Diet Starts Tomorrow” Health & Wellness vertical.

“While we initially timed the campaign launch to early-mid March, we quickly had to pivot with the onset of COVID-19,” Kuperman told Publishers Daily.

She explained: “Our first activation was a series of IG stories. We wanted to spotlight that Obé was the DST fans’ answer for at-home, effective workout solutions. Our customized approach proved to be successful, helping to secure three rounds of partnership renewals over three months.”

Betches “Quarantainment” has attracted new viewers to its content. Across its social media accounts, the brand boasts a 35.2% increase in followers.

Specifically, Betches reports an average weekly increase of 31% across engagements on Instagram. Pre-quarantine, Betches averaged 2.5 million engagements on its @betches Instagram account, however, since fans have been stuck at home, that number rose to 3.28 million by mid-April.

Its daily trivia game, which airs on IG Stories, counted a total of 5.56 million poll responses by mid-April, while its expert-led COVIDeos reported 300,800 views through its @betches Instagram account and 11,000 through its @dietstartstomorrow presence. On YouTube, the show has amassed 30,100 views.

“Community is more important to us than ever and our team has adjusted our content strategy to speak to how all of us are feeling right now,” said Kuperman. “With many people being forced to stay at home, we saw this as a way to be there for our audiences and provide them with an escape and a little humor from the otherwise grim daily news cycle.”

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly claimed 61.5% of brands that regularly advertise on the Betches site signed up for o the new "Quarantainment" lineup. In fact, the number includes all Betches channels, cross-platform. Also stats referring to its COVIDeos are specific only to a video featuring COVID-19 expert Dr. Mike.