Good morning. Merlin—a pig whose owner taught him to communicate through buttons—just broke the Guinness World Record for “most followed pig on Instagram” with 1.1 million followers.

We’re pressing our “congrats” button, Merlin.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

1. Inside Buzzfeed Tasty’s new content strategy
2. How an Instagram creator continues to go viral after a decade
3. What NIL deals look like during March Madness

Buzzfeed’s food media branch, Tasty—known for pioneering several content formats with their “hands and pans” videos and a creator-led cast—turns 10 this year.

But food media has changed a lot in the last decade: Individual creators like Tineke Younger are making hooky, short-form videos and creating recipes optimized for platforms like TikTok and Pinterest. Larger creators like Mythical Kitchen and Nick DiGiovanni are dominating on YouTube, where food challenge videos reign supreme.

So how is Tasty adapting? We talked with the brand’s head of editorial Ross Yoder and head of video Brian Moreno about their strategy → 

“If you were looking at a Tasty video in 2016, we were purposefully not featuring people's faces in that content. The whole model was hands and pans,” Yoder told us. “As soon as video became the preferred medium for recipe discovery, Tasty moved so quickly towards a creator-first model, which I know Brian and I are still really proud of.”

Here’s the gameplan for staying nimble in a more competitive creator space:

Big picture: Other food media companies like Food52 and Bon Appétit are leaning heavily on new creator talent as digital advertising shifts from publishers to creators and platforms. For its part, Buzzfeed has struggled to stay profitable in recent years and has significantly downsized as its market cap shrank from over $1 billion to $27 million.

Buzzfeed told investors earlier this month that there’s “substantial doubt” it can stay in business, but founder Jonah Peretti is considering selling properties like Tasty to stay afloat. 

The question now: Can Tasty’s attempted pivot from online media brand to creator-first powerhouse offer Buzzfeed the turnaround it needs? Hit reply and let us know what you think.

“I try to find things in daily life—the iPhone user interface, email, or garbage can—things that people use but don’t think could be funny,” design creator Pablo Rochat told us.

Rochat has built a following of 1 million on Instagram by turning everyday objects into unexpected, playful ideas—like dipping fries into the iPhone’s “record” button, fliers for pigeons, or a “typing” iMessage bubble that turns into a ghost.

Over the past decade, that approach has earned him 300M+ likes, credits directing music videos, and work with brands like Gucci, Converse, and Adobe.

We hopped on a call to hear about his creative process →

1. Idea > execution
Rochat works across media—illustration, VFX, video—but always starts with the idea. “I like communicating an idea in a concise way—a lot of those fundamental ideas live in graphic design. How in one second, can you communicate a feeling in a smart and interesting way?” Rochat said.

2. Take cues from the algorithm
Rochat views platform changes (like Instagram prioritizing Reels over grid posts) as creative prompts. “I just take that as a brief,” Rochat said. “The art is to entertain as many people as possible.”

3. Make time to tinker
Rochat says ideas come from observations or thinking about a simple thing for a long period of time. “Some idea that I’ll post next week is something I’ve thought about for three years. Some things need time to marinate,” Rochat said. He said a recent post of a yoga pants with phone cameras that look like otter eyes took hours to come up with. 

Looking ahead: Rochat wants to continue experimenting with more media such as photo collages and long-form video and expand into more commercial director work. 

“I was always afraid of getting really good at one thing and a style that could get old for people,” Rochat said. “So I'm constantly trying to create something that’s surprising both to me and my audience just to stay ahead of being too repetitive.”

While Arizona and Arkansas duke it out for their spot in the Elite Eight this week, the real champions of March Madness might just be Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) creators. Companies are spending an estimated $932 million on NIL deals for the NCAA this year, the most in any single year since NIL rules rolled out in 2021.  

Here’s the latest → 

What this means for creators: Prominent athletic programs are able to entice sports creators with the promise of lucrative NIL deals and even paying them directly under the 2025 House vs. NCAA settlement. Kentucky reportedly spent $22 million on its roster this season through payroll and NIL deals. This gives more opportunities to top athletes-turned-creators—and schools are paying attention. Some programs have shrunken their rosters to prioritize spending on top NIL talent.