Is BeReal Really A Good Place For Brands To Be Seen?

The trending social app BeReal has amassed close to 22 million users making it natural for brands and advertisers to be curious about exploring the potential of the platform.

If you don’t already know, the premise of BeReal is that its app uses a dual camera feature – the front and back cameras – and users will receive a two-minute prompt to take a photo of their surroundings at random times during the day. They must take a photo directly from the camera; they cannot upload one. The idea is that it is a much more unfiltered and real representation of everyday life shared on social media in comparison to other apps such as Instagram.

After sharing your photo, you can view the posts made by your friends who were also prompted at the same time. BeReal has proved so popular with users in fact, that Instagram has been reported to be testing a new feature to compete against BeReal.

 

Great for users, but for brands?

If you have created a highly polished brand image, corporate logo, branding guidelines, brand photography, plus guidelines for copy and tone of voice, then the idea of posting random images at a set time of day might seem like a surefire way to shatter all of that hard work in creating your brand image.

Even BeReal’s promotional copy includes the line: “No filters. No likes. No followers. No bullsh*t. No ads.”

However, there is also the idea here that many users like the authenticity on offer from BeReal. This is a quality and a mindset that many brands share too.

BeReal doesn’t allow formal advertising, so brands who want to engage on the platform have to take part.

One way companies have done this so far is by sharing pictures that show behind-the-scenes of the brand and by sharing photos of exclusive discount codes.

Chipotle is one high-profile brand that joined BeReal earlier this year and it shared reusable promo codes in its posts for a week with the first 100 people to use the promo would receive a free meal. The codes were used up in less than a minute.

Other brands have “leaked” photos of new products before they are officially announced to create hype.  However many in the marketing industry believe that BeReal could easily just be a fad. Despite its growth it is still tiny compared to apps like Instagram.

In a tough economic market, many companies today would prefer to invest more marketing spend on the established platforms than to try and figure out something new and untested – this combined with the raw unfiltered post approach will mean the BeReal can work for some brands, but it’s not going to be for everyone.

Instead taking a strategic approach and working out the risks and rewards, and the benefits of diverting marketing spend away from established platforms before creating BeReal content is a smart move.

If you would like help with your digital marketing and analytics, brand messaging, advertising, and digital marketing in Charlotte, North Carolina to Seattle, Washington, and everywhere in between, get in touch with Visual Caffeine to learn how we can help you.

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