Who is Mustard for?
Mustard operates as an influencer marketing platform for local businesses.[1][2] The software serves restaurants as well as local retail stores.[1] Event venues and fitness centers utilize the marketing service too.[1] Beauty and wellness businesses maintain active profiles on the platform.[1] Mustard offers a mix of software and managed campaign services.[3] A restaurant marketer uses the platform to generate local buzz.[1] The service connects brick-and-mortar locations with social media content creators.[4] Mustard maintains a network of creators across the United States.[3] Creators in Canada and the United Kingdom also participate actively.[3]
A restaurant uses the software to organize social media promotions.[2] The platform requires no previous marketing experience from the user.[3] A business owner can launch a campaign without phone calls.[3] The platform is designed to turn creator audiences into customers.[4] The creator produces content to share on their social media.[4]
A client can upgrade to a different plan at any time.[3] Your campaign history stays the same after a plan upgrade.[3] A restaurant can cancel a monthly campaign after one month.[3] The software supports single stores alongside national restaurant chain locations.[2] Mustard does not say if a restaurant chain can run a single campaign across all locations. You can contact the support team through the software dashboard.[3] The vendor provides customer support in several different spoken languages.[5]
How do CreatoRain and Mustard compare?
Who finds the creators?
Mustard serves many types of local businesses like retail stores and restaurants.[1] Mustard provides access to creators across categories like food and lifestyle.[3] Mustard creators post their content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.[3] A restaurant can browse profiles to find creators by city or follower size.[3] A restaurant can also let Mustard match the campaign with local influencers.[3] A restaurant reviews the creator profiles and approves the ones they want.[5]
CreatoRain's food creators review restaurants, as CreatoRain is built for restaurants, not for every kind of business. CreatoRain has a food-creator network, ready before you sign up. CreatoRain's in-house team invites the creators from its food-creator network.
Mustard provides access to creators across multiple industries, while CreatoRain is built for restaurants.[1] Mustard lets a restaurant approve creators, while CreatoRain's in-house team invites the creators from its food-creator network.[3]
Who contacts the creators?
You still get access to direct creator messaging inside the platform.[3] Mustard automatically tracks whether a creator delivers their content after a visit.[3] A collaboration is automatically flagged in your dashboard if a creator fails to post.[3] You can quickly invite or approve another creator to keep the campaign moving.[3] Mustard does not specify who exactly writes the initial outreach messages.
CreatoRain's in-house team handles every creator reply. CreatoRain's in-house team pays the creators and follows up until each video is posted.
Mustard offers direct creator messaging inside the platform, while CreatoRain's in-house team runs the outreach so you do not send a single email.[3] Mustard automatically flags a collaboration in your dashboard if someone fails to post, whereas CreatoRain's in-house team follows up until each video is posted.[3]
How does a campaign get set up?
You start a Mustard campaign by choosing a monthly plan on the website.[3] You launch a first creator campaign in just a few minutes.[3] You provide basic restaurant information and a few recommended menu items for the campaign.[5] Mustard asks for your restaurant Instagram account if one is available.[5] You set the location and campaign preferences on the platform.[3] Mustard sets up a kickoff call to discuss business goals and timelines.[4] Mustard coordinates the booking for each approved creator on your list.[4] Mustard books and confirms each creator visit to prevent no-shows.[4] Mustard's pages do not explain how a restaurant chain adds another location to a running campaign.
You add all your restaurant locations to one campaign. You add a location, and the in-house team invites and pays the creators. A new location can join a running campaign on any day. You do not coordinate the visit schedule with the creators. The creators book their own visit in the CreatoRain app.
You set a location during Mustard setup, while you add multiple locations to one CreatoRain campaign.[3] Mustard coordinates the booking for each approved creator, whereas creators book their own visit in the CreatoRain app.[4]
Who runs the day-to-day work?
Mustard automates scheduling and content tracking for each location.[2] Mustard handles booking visits and coordinating campaigns.[4] Mustard issues a secure digital voucher to cover the creator meal.[5] The restaurant chooses the food credit, typically $25 to $200 per creator.[5] Mustard helps prevent fraud or confusion between influencers and staff.[5] Mustard's monthly fee covers campaign management and influencer matchmaking.[5] Mustard also automates payments to the creators.[2] Mustard provides direct creator messaging for communication.[3] Mustard tracks whether creators deliver their content after a visit.[3]
What's left for you: host the visit, and confirm bookings unless auto-confirm is on. You host the visit and cover the meal for the creator. Nothing is paid to the creator in cash on top of the price.
Mustard's monthly fee covers campaign management, while CreatoRain's in-house team runs the campaign for every client at the same price per video.[5] Mustard issues a digital voucher for a food credit, whereas you cover one or two meals from your own menu per creator visit with CreatoRain.[5] Mustard provides direct creator messaging, whereas CreatoRain's in-house team handles every creator reply.[3]
What do you see afterwards?
Mustard provides a live dashboard and monthly performance reports for your campaigns.[5] Mustard tracks profile visits for each creator.[5] Mustard summarizes clicks and traffic from social media platforms.[5] Mustard captures comments and mentions about your restaurant.[5] Mustard includes links to all posted content in the report.[5] Mustard uses promo codes to track orders and in-store visits.[4] Mustard updates the dashboard as creators complete their posts.[5]
CreatoRain tallies the videos submitted and approved for your campaign. CreatoRain does not measure foot traffic or sales. CreatoRain does not measure ROI. CreatoRain does not measure reach or views.
Mustard tracks profile visits for each creator, while CreatoRain does not measure reach or views.[3] Mustard uses promo codes to track orders and bookings, whereas CreatoRain does not measure sales or foot traffic.[4] Mustard provides a live dashboard showing comments and mentions, while CreatoRain's report counts booked visits and approved videos.[5]
What does it cost?
Mustard offers monthly plans priced at $299, $499, and $999.[3] Mustard also sells three-month campaigns for $675, $1,125, and $2,250.[3] The $299 monthly plan includes three local influencers producing three social posts and three stories.[3] The $499 monthly plan covers five local influencers creating five social posts and five stories.[3] The $999 monthly plan provides ten local influencers posting ten social posts and ten stories.[3] Mustard requires a one-month minimum commitment before you can cancel anytime.[3] The monthly fee covers influencer matchmaking, campaign management, and content creation.[5] You provide a food credit, typically $25 to $200 per influencer, on top of the plan price.[5] Mustard issues the food credit to the influencer as a secure digital voucher.[5] Any cash compensation for the creator is separate from the plan price.[3]
CreatoRain charges $300 a video, the creator's pay included. CreatoRain charges no monthly fee. The price per video remains the same for any number of locations.
Mustard requires a monthly fee for a fixed package, while CreatoRain charges per video with no monthly fee.[5] Mustard asks for a food credit, typically $25 to $200 per influencer, whereas on CreatoRain you cover one or two meals per creator visit.[5] Mustard allows you to pay creators cash separately, but CreatoRain includes the creator's pay in its per-video price.[3]
When is Mustard the better pick?
Mustard is a better fit when a business wants to pick creators by city, follower size and content style, and track promo codes tied to orders.[3][4] Mustard's plans cost less per creator: the $299 monthly plan covers three local influencers.[3] Mustard serves retail stores and hotels alongside events and fitness businesses.[1] The Mustard platform lets you browse profiles and view past posts before inviting specific creators.[3] Mustard campaigns allow you to handpick creators from the incoming applications.[3] Mustard allows content featuring alcohol or smoking as long as the establishment serves food.[5] Mustard offers support in English and Spanish as well as Mandarin and Korean.[5]
Mustard tracks promo codes tied to customer orders and bookings.[4] Mustard creators post on Instagram and TikTok as well as Facebook.[3] Mustard reports summarize clicks and comments or mentions about the restaurant.[5] The Mustard dashboard displays performance metrics and campaign updates in real time.[5] Mustard lets you quickly invite or approve another creator for a replacement.[3]
Why does a restaurant chain pick CreatoRain?
CreatoRain is a done-for-you restaurant influencer marketing service for restaurant chains and franchises. CreatoRain supports multi-location food and drink businesses with brick-and-mortar locations. Mustard campaigns launch in 24 hours, while a CreatoRain campaign does not wait for creators to be found.[1] A location can join a running CreatoRain campaign any day.
CreatoRain's in-house team runs the outreach. You do not send a single email. Mustard covers campaign management in a monthly fee, while on CreatoRain you host the visit and the in-house team handles the creators.[5] CreatoRain's in-house team runs the campaign for every client. Mustard updates a dashboard as creators complete posts, whereas CreatoRain's report counts booked visits and approved videos.[3]
Mustard charges $299, $499 or $999 for a one-month campaign.[3] CreatoRain charges one price per video, the same for any number of locations.