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There's a version of this post that's all celebration. And honestly, we're letting ourselves feel it for a minute. Going coast to coast is a milestone that our team, our creators, and our Des Moines roots deserve to sit with.
But this post isn't really about us. It's about what this means for you.
The Gap That Held Brands Back
For the past several years, as we expanded city by city and market by market, one of the most common things we heard from brands went something like this: "We love what you're doing — but we need coverage in X."
Sometimes X was New York. Sometimes it was the Southeast, or the Pacific Northwest, or a cluster of mid-size markets where a brand had just landed distribution and needed local momentum to match. Nearly half of brand calls we had raised Northeast interest before we were even live there. Deals stalled. Brands waited.
Creator density has always been the engine behind what Hummingbirds does. It's not about reach in the traditional sense. It's about having real people, everyday shoppers, community members, neighbors, embedded in the specific cities, ZIP codes, and retailers where your product actually lives on a shelf. Brands like Banza, Goodles, and Graza already know this. They've seen what happens when a real person picks your product off the shelf at their neighborhood Target and shares it with the people around them. When that community density doesn't exist in a market, the whole model loses its edge.
That changes now.
What Going National Actually Unlocks
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Hummingbirds is now live in 78 cities across the United States, including New York City, our most-requested market by a significant margin. NYC drove more creator waitlist interest than any single market in our history, surpassing Los Angeles by over 50%. We've built a community of over 50,000 everyday creators who are active in the markets, the neighborhoods, and the retailers where your products are sold.
These aren't traditional influencers chasing follower counts. They're real people, predominantly women, primarily ages 25 to 45, half of them parents, with average followings between 500 and 3,000. They recommend products because they genuinely love them, not because they were paid handsomely to say so. When a Hummingbirds creator shares Goodles with her community, it's because she tried it and wants her people to know about it.
"Being a Bird means being part of a creative, supportive community that truly values authentic storytelling. I love the collaborative energy and the opportunity to create meaningful content with brands I genuinely align with. It feels like more than just a platform — it's a movement of inspired voices."
Na'kayla, Detroit, MIThat's what makes the content land, and what makes the community trust it.
But here's the distinction worth sitting with: we didn't scale by growing a following. We scaled by deepening community. There is a meaningful difference between a platform with national reach and a platform with national presence. Reach is a number. Presence is knowing the ZIP codes, the preferred retailers, and the real people walking those aisles.
What This Means for Your Brand Campaigns
If you've been running hyperlocal creator campaigns and hitting a ceiling in markets where your retail footprint extended further than our creator network did, that ceiling is gone.
If you've been holding off on a specific region because you weren't sure the community was there to support it, it's there now. Brands can now activate campaigns across all 78 cities simultaneously, running national programs that still execute with local precision, shelf by shelf, city by city, ZIP code by ZIP code.
This matters most for CPG brands navigating what's actually the hardest part of retail: not getting on the shelf, but staying there. Velocity, meaning product movement off the shelf, depends on real people discovering your product, trying it, and coming back. Brands like Graza have leaned into this model because they understand that the moment of truth happens in the store, not in an impression count. Hummingbirds makes that connection in the markets where your product lives, with creators who feel like neighbors rather than spokespeople.
National campaigns no longer have to choose between coverage and community. With 78 cities live and a creator base that grew 132.5% in 2025 alone, brands can now run broad and still feel local, which is exactly the kind of presence that moves product.
The Question We're Sitting With Next
Going national expands what's possible. But we've been thinking about a harder question on behalf of the brands we work with: coverage is one thing, and proof is another.
You can feel a campaign work. You can see the content, count the impressions, watch the comments roll in on that Banza pasta post. But can you draw a line from that creator story to an actual purchase at a specific store? Can you tell your buyer or your board exactly what that campaign did for velocity?
"I love the opportunity to be creative with different types of content and share the things that bring me joy, especially when it means trying something new. Being a Hummingbird allows me to work with a variety of brands, explore fresh ideas, and build connections both within my own community and with new ones."
Elizabeth, Milwaukee, WIBehind every campaign are people like Elizabeth, in cities like Milwaukee, genuinely excited to discover and share what they love. That's not a metric. But what comes next will help you see exactly what it's worth.
We believe IRL is where it clicks. And we're getting closer to being able to show you exactly where and how it happened.
More on that soon.
In the meantime: if you're a brand that's been waiting on the sidelines for the right market coverage or the right moment to run nationally, this is it. The community is there. The cities are live. And what comes next is going to make what's already possible even more worth your while.
Frequently Asked Questions
What cities is Hummingbirds available in now?
Hummingbirds is live in 78 cities across the United States. Our national footprint spans the Midwest, West Coast, Southwest, Southeast, and now the Northeast, including New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Long Island, Hoboken/Jersey City, Princeton, and more. We started in the Midwest, proved the model worked, and expanded from there.
What kinds of brands work with Hummingbirds?
We work with CPG brands that are available at national retailers like Target, Walmart, Costco, Whole Foods, and more. Our sweet spot is growth-stage brands with real retail traction, brands like Banza, Goodles, and Graza that believe in the power of real people discovering and sharing products they genuinely love. If your product is on shelf and you need the community presence to match, you're exactly who we built this for.
Who are the creators on the Hummingbirds platform?
Our community of 50,000+ everyday creators are real people, not traditional influencers. They're predominantly women (90%), primarily ages 25 to 45, with about half being parents. Their average following sits between 500 and 3,000, and they participate because they love discovering and sharing products, not because brand deals are how they pay their bills. That distinction is what makes their recommendations land with the people around them.
How is Hummingbirds different from working with traditional influencers?
Traditional influencers tend to be category-focused, have large followings, and produce content that audiences increasingly recognize as paid. Hummingbirds creators are generalists who recommend products because they tried them and genuinely want to share. The result is more authentic, peer-to-peer content that builds trust at the local level, and content that's ready to repurpose across social, digital, and retail channels without a full production lift.
How does a brand campaign on Hummingbirds work?
Brands launch targeted campaigns through the platform, selecting hyperlocal creators in the specific markets and retailers that matter most to them. From there, creators discover the campaign, submit pitches, and once selected, create content and share it with their communities. Brands can review performance and repurpose high-quality UGC across paid, digital, and retail channels.
What does going national mean for brands that need full retail footprint coverage?
It means you no longer have to run campaigns in some markets and not others because creator density was thin. With 78 cities live coast to coast, brands can now activate simultaneously across their entire retail footprint, running national programs that still execute with the hyperlocal precision that makes them work at the shelf level.
Is there anything new coming to the platform?
Yes, and we can't wait to share it. We're working on something that will change what's possible when it comes to proving that your creator campaigns are actually moving product. Stay tuned.
