Capterra’s researchers use a mix of verified reviews, independent research and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or speak to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.
Capterra carefully verified over 2 million reviews to bring you authentic software and services experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI. Learn more.
Capterra lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Capterra is free for users. Software and service providers pay us for sponsored profiles to receive web traffic and sales opportunities. Sponsored profiles include a link-out icon that takes users to the provider’s website. Learn more.
Trend is an image and video creative services platform. We've simplified the way that brands source content ranging from product photography, lifestyle photos/videos, product action photos/videos, unboxings, testimonials, and more! Our network of opted-in curated creators gives you the ability to run dozens of content projects every month making sourcing high-quality, converting content quickly and pain-free.
Provider
Trend
Located In
United States
Foundation
2018
Open API
Unverified
Deployment
Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based
Mobile Apps
iOS
Training
Live Online, Documentation
Support
Chat, Email/Help Desk, Phone Support, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base
Trend is best for food, beverage, beauty, fashion, and retail brands that have experienced the pain of running and managing their creative pipeline for omnichannel marketing.
Content Source: Trend
Based on other buyer's searches, these are the products that could be a good fit for you.
Trend Reviews
Pros
They have done a great time with the videos they created for us and shared with their audience. We're happy with the engagement they receive and believe it is helping to build brand awareness.
They have been great to work with. The customer service has been excellent and quick to respond.
Our company loved how easy this system was to use, especially compared to other systems we had used in the past. Their employees were also easy to work with and very friendly.
I would recommend and continue using the software, easy to use and the quality of the influencers in their network are great.
Cons
I can see why Trend would want to limit communication, lest the user and influencer conspire to cut Trend out of the transaction, so they'll have to figure that out.
The influencers are mostly very young and don't always produce the highest quality images - some look very staged and unnatural and some even with bad lighting.
At first, pricing can be a bit unclear but it's still less than other programs we have used in the past.
It seems a bit harsh to use the Reject option if only minor edits are needed (especially since there's a notification asking to consider before rejecting).
"Does what is promised"
Pros: Easy to use and fairly cheap for User generated content
Cons: Fairly small influencer pool. Not enough influencers in my niche
"Low-cost solution to scale your microinfluencer program"
Overall: We have been very happy with the engagement and impressions we've generated through this partnership, as well as some of the content that we've been able to repurpose in our paid channels. We plan to continue using Trend on an ongoing basis. Our only concern is that as a specialty food brand who strives for authenticity in our partnerships, the pool of qualified influencers may start to dry up at some point. However, we have not run into this issue yet after using the platform for 4 months, which is great.
Pros: Trend has made it easy to increase the number of influencers we engage with on a monthly basis at a reasonable cost. As the sole manager of our influencer program, I know that it takes a lot of legwork to perform influencer outreach, negotiate contracts, and coordinate partnership deliverables. Working with Trend has allowed us to build a baseline of microinfluencer exposure and usable content without spending as much time and effort, so that I can focus my energy on our larger-scale partnerships. Whenever we've run into a hiccup on the platform, our account manager has been responsive and accommodating to our needs. I couldn't be happier with the level of personalized service they have provided us.
Cons: As a relatively new platform, Trend still has some kinks to work out. The platform can be buggy and slow, reports don't always download properly, video content does not (yet) work, and the UX experience could stand to be improved upon. That being said, the bugs are outweighed by the simplicity of the platform and the low cost per influencer. Whenever I have contacted our account manager regarding a bug, he is quick to respond and find a solution when necessary. Although there are many quality influencers on the platform, I find that I need to sift through a lot of subpar applicants in order to find qualifying influencers. I also see many influencers who are obviously buying follows and comments, who we prefer not to work with. If I could change anything about the influencer pool in Trend, I would ask for the bar to be set higher as far as content quality in order for influencers to join the platform, and I wish they would do more to vet the number of real vs fake followers. Finally, several of the influencers we have engaged with have been confused about the process, the payment, or the contract terms on the platform. However, when this occurs, our account manager has been quick to reach out to each individual personally to discuss the issue. I have been very pleased with the way Trend has handled these situations, and they have assured me that they are making changes to the influencer onboarding process to clarify these aspects.
Vendor Response
"It was great at first but quickly turned sour for my small business "
Overall: I got on Trend to help me connect with creators to get content for my business but I think that this is best for companies with larger budgets who don't mind losing a few hundred dollars here and there and unfortunately, I am not in a space where I can comfortably take those losses. Every dollar counts in the world of small biz.
Pros: Trend is easy to use and set up and handles all copyright and ownership issues for you which is great as that saves time going back and forth with creators as far as negotiating pay and ownership rights.
Cons: The creators on trend are hit or miss and I have been ghosted by 1 or 2 each time I finalize a campaign. When I turn to customer service to ask for a resolution, I am not given much of an answer. This is extremely upsetting as a small business owner as not only are you required to pre-fund campaigns but you have also already sent out products with monetary value to said creators just to be ghosted and ignored. Customer service doesn't really care to do much about it either. Imagine being ghosted by a creator, then posting another campaign in good faith that it was just 1 bad apple to then have that SAME creator apply to your new campaign. Why weren't they flagged or removed altogether? No idea! Then another creator just turns around and does the same thing. Clearly, there are multiple bad apples. Not sure what the vetting process is for creators but it should be better. They claim creators have 7 days to make and submit content after receiving the product but it seems there are no repercussions for creators not fulfilling their end of the bargain. I have spent close to $1k on this platform and have met some awesome creators but experiences like this really outweigh the positive.
"Many out there, but none like Trend"
Overall: Overall, Trend is unique in how they do what they do. We've used many different services and all of them seem to be a guessing game of pay to play per influencer. This is frustrating and wastes so much time. Communication with influencers on most platforms is offline and in DMs which is not a very good way to keep track of things. Trend keeps every part of the experience/campaign in one place with simple pricing.
Pros: First: The software is simple and takes the guesswork out of pricing for influencers. This allows you to focus on quality of content/influencer and not be driven by how expensive or cheep each influencer is since prices are pre-negotiated by Trend. This is a win all the way round. Second: The tracking feature for sending products is seamless. With most postal/shipping companies integrated and each step of the way is carefully documented, this makes the process of knowing your product has arrived a breeze. Trend also guarantees it and this is good for the mind and soul Third: The quality of influencers is carefully curated and the content delivered by influencers is top notch. Here you don't risk having an influencer give you low-quality content as you can decline it and they can re-do the content.
Cons: The demographic skews heavily female, however, I don't think this is not really a fault of Trend as with most platforms, women tend to dominate in this influencer/content space. For our use case this still works but as we get more into the male market, seeing more representation will be good.
"Beyond happy - Trend.io is the solution for your influencer marketing needs"
Overall: Trend is helping us to connect authentically with customers.
Pros: Trend is extremely easy to use. The interface is minimal, streamlined, and setting up your first campaign takes very little time. I love that this software connects our brand with influencers that are aligned with our brand promise. Within 24 hours, we had numerous influencers ready to promote our brand. We plan to use Trend far into the future. I've had the opportunity to work with many UGC software applications and this is a very economical (yet high quality) solution to competitive products. Looking forward to a long working relationship with this company.
Cons: The only difficult aspect of Trend has been trying to narrow down such a wide selection of influencers. Not sure that this is a con as reach is one of the greatest challenges brands face today. We decided to roll with influencers that align closest with our brand and that already live our promise.