Tastemade Makes a Kitchen Show Shoppable Through AI

Tastemade, a video content provider on streaming television and mobile platforms, has launched a shopping experience for viewers that provides an opportunity for brands and retailers to widen their customer base.

On Tuesday evening, Tastemade debuted “Kitchen Glow Up,” a kitchen renovation series. Through Shopsense AI technology, viewers can access an online store featuring products seen on the show, as well as related products, from Target, Kohl’s, Ikea, Amazon, Container Store, Home Depot and Hedley & Bennett.

Every episode of “Kitchen Glow Up” will be shoppable with new items for kitchens, pantries and other cooking spaces presented each week. Ellen Marie Bennett, founder and chief brand officer of Hedley & Bennett, will host the show and bring professional cooks and interior designers into the conversation. The first two episodes premiered Tuesday at 7 p.m. on the Tastemade streaming channel.

“‘Kitchen Glow Up’ lends itself nicely to various products recommended on the show that amateur and pro cooks can use in their kitchens to make their lives easier while cooking,” said Evan Bregman, general manager of streaming at Tastemade. “What’s exciting about the partnership with Shopsense AI is that they’ve helped us curate a ‘full-on’ store of contextually relevant products.”

On Tastemade’s food and cooking shows, ingredients for just about anything seen could be purchased using QR codes on screen accessing a recipe page and an “add to cart” feature to shop at Walmart, or other retailers. “Now with ‘Kitchen Glow Up,’ we saw the opportunity to expand our shopability significantly, because it’s really thematically relevant to the show, and we found a great partner [Shopsense AI] to help us with that.” The shop, he added, looks like “an extension” of the show.

“The top way that we have been able to enable that second-screen experience has traditionally been recipes. So we’re excited that now there’s another way we can get folks to interact with us,” Bregman said.

He said that Shopsense AI provides Tastemade “the opportunity to create interactive experiences that redefine how our audience engages with our programming, builds brand affinity and gets people coming back.…It’s a longer-term deal with Shopsense that goes beyond just this show. We are going to stand up various different iterations of this store for different thematic moments throughout the calendar year,” Bregman said. “We’re expecting to do it around our various theme weeks, like ‘grill week’ and ‘pizza week’ and then other specific series as well, where we feel there’s a good connection to shopping. The hope is that this can be a 365-day, year[long] destination for our viewers to interact with us in a totally brand new way. We’re definitely excited about some of our content and episodes coming out.”

Shopsense AI, which launched its retail media platform in April, has powered other shoppable TV experiences including “The Talk” daytime show where viewers could shop the outfits worn by program hosts. Shopsense also powered Paramount Global’s CMT Music Awards shopping experience, so viewers could purchase looks seen on the red carpet, as well as shoppable experiences tied to the CBS Sports Golazo Network, and Univision’s coverage of the Latin American Music Awards.

“We’re helping broadcasters turn their premium long-form content on their shows shoppable, making it part of the experience in a very integrated and thoughtful way by leveraging AI,” explained Glenn Fishback, cofounder and chief executive officer of Shopsense AI. Its patent-pending technology allows consumers to find and buy AI-curated collections of clothing, home goods, sports gear and other products they see on TV shows, movies, at sports events and on livestream broadcasts, he said.

For the “Kitchen Glow Up” debut, more than 50 brands representing several hundred products will be shoppable, Fishback said. The selection will constantly get updated thanks to AI, as inventory starts to run low. When you click to purchase a product, you’ll be linked to that brand or a retailer. Shopsense AI aggregates products from retailers they have affiliate agreements with. Fishback said that eventually, consumers will be able to shop by using their phone camera to take a photo of an item.

Those wishing to shop while watching “Kitchen Glow Up” get directed to shop.tastemade.com.

“Tastemade understands that younger audiences are looking for a more engaging television experience,” Marissa Ramirez, senior vice president of business development at Shopsense AI, said in a statement. “Tastemade is moving shoppable content forward in a way that closes the gap between the point of inspiration and the moment of transaction.”

According to Shopsense AI data, nearly nine out of 10 U.S. consumers use mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to browse shoppable TV content while watching shows.

Tastemade specializes in creating video content and original programming in the categories of food, travel, and home and design. Tastemade launched about 12 years ago and transitioned into streaming in 2018.

“Streaming is the fastest-growing part of our business,” Bregman said. “We have four streaming channels in the U.S. Our flagship channel is ‘Food and More.’ There’s also the ‘Tastemade Travel,’ ‘Tastemade Home’ and ‘Tastemade Español’ shows.” Tastemade is available on any free streaming television service, such as Samsung TV Plus and Vizio Watchfree Plus, linear TV as well as on demand.

Tastemade competes with multichannel video programming distributors and lifestyle channels such as the HGTV Food Network, and free streaming services such as Bon Appétit.

“We’re a youthful, diverse brand. Our approach is fundamentally different than most of our competitors,” Bregman said. “By focusing on a Millennial audience, telling diverse stories, cooking with tons of flavor and lots of variety, we think we stand out.”