How We Used Found Content to Create Our 2025 Trends Report

Creating the 2025 Trends Report for Catch+Release was an exercise in creativity, curation, and some serious hustle. The goal? Capture the trends that matter most to marketers, producers, and creatives—and do it in a way that feels real, actionable, and inspiring. The idea wasn’t just to make a pretty report. It was to create something useful, something our audience could see themselves in. To do that, we leaned on Found Content, the cornerstone of what Catch+Release does. And it worked.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the Trends Report came together—and how you can use this approach to quickly make content that connects.

Step 1: Gather the Smartest Insights

The first step was to dive into what’s already out there. I rounded up trend reports from some of the sharpest brands and platforms in the game—TikTok, Meta, Mintel, YouTube, and more. These reports were treasure troves of data, ideas, and cultural insights. And they were a really fun read.

I spent hours reading through them, marking up the pages (digitally, of course), and pulling out anything that felt fresh or relevant to our customers—marketers and creatives who understand the value of authenticity and transparency in their work.

This step is about identifying patterns. What’s everyone talking about? What’s new? What actually matters?

Step 2: Find the Trends That Resonate

Not every trend makes the cut. Some were too niche, some too obvious. I was looking for trends that felt universal yet specific enough to be actionable.

The question I kept asking myself was: Would our customers care about this? Catch+Release works with brands and agencies that are always looking for ways to connect with audiences in real, human ways. So, I focused on trends that supported that ethos—trends like De-Influencing, where creators reject the hype and focus on honesty, or Fandoms as Brand Builders, where audiences shape a brand’s narrative from the ground up.

Our goal was to give our customers some value. And to help them lead the charge in 2025.

Step 3: Turn Trends Into Actionable Insights

Once we chose the trends, the next step was to make them useful. It’s one thing to say, “This is a trend.” It’s another to show someone how to act on it.

For each trend, we thought about what a creative or strategist could actually do. For example:

• In Real-Time Connections, we outlined how brands can leverage live commerce and social media to create engaging, personal moments.
• In De-Influencing, we explored how partnering with honest, values-driven creators can build trust and long-term loyalty.

Step 4: Bring It to Life With Found ContentHere’s where the fun began. Once the trends were defined, I needed to bring them to life in a way that felt human.I turned to the Catch+Release Creator Community, our platform for sourcing and licensing real user-generated content. My goal was to find and license visuals that embodied and proved the trend, adding to the words on the page with demonstrative content from real people.For Fandoms as Brand Builders, I found some fan-made content that celebrated a product with more heart and creativity than most ads. For Trust as the New Currency, I came across a video of a small-business owner explaining how transparency helped them build loyalty with customers. Not everything made the cut, but even the pieces I didn’t use informed the process.Authentic Found Content makes your campaigns feel more immediate and human. In this case, real creator content showed how the ideas we were talking about aren’t just ideas; they are already playing out in the world.Step 5: Pull It All TogetherThe five trends we identified weren’t just abstract ideas—they were grounded in data, actionable insights, and real-world examples.What I learned in the process is this: Found Content doesn’t just help you build faster. It helps you think better. Searching for and curating content forces you to look at the world differently, to find the stories and patterns that connect everything. It’s not just about making content—it’s about understanding it.Why It WorkedThis approach worked because it was built on three things:

1. Curiosity: Start with what’s out there. The answers are rarely in a vacuum.
2. Relevance: Focus on what matters to your audience.
3. Authenticity: Use Found Content to bring the trends to life in ways people can see themselves in.

How You Can Do It

‍If you’re working on a big content project—whether it’s a trends report, a campaign, or a pitch—this process can work for you too.

• Start with the best sources you can find.
• Focus on what’s actionable for your audience.
• Use real, human content to bring your ideas to life.

And if you want a partner to help you source and license Found Content for your project, Catch+Release is here to help.What’s Next?If you haven’t already, check out the 2025 Trends Report to see how it all came together. And if you’re curious about how Catch+Release can help transform your next campaign, let’s connect.Sometimes, the best content isn’t created—it’s Found.