BeReal: a success or flop for the industry?

29 Mar

BeReal took hype to the next level last year. Articles released saying it was the next social media for Gen-Z; posting in real time, with no filters or edits. And although it is still very widely used by Gen-Z and others alike, it is, however, still firmly a no-ads zone.

Not having the opportunity to place ads on the platform didn’t stop a few brands.

Last year, some brands responded to BeReal’s young community of users, and the fact that the app was gaining traction. The novelty factor of being “one of the first” allowed brands to join the community, test the application, and possibly build out a new audience, which can prove to be a valuable opportunity.

Chipotle, one of the first major brands to stake a claim in BeReal back in April 2022, gave companies a blueprint for how to create a presence. The restaurant chain shared reusable promo codes for a week, for example, with the promise that the first 100 people to use the promo would snag a free entrée (as Candice Beck, Chipotle’s social director notes, the bid was successful: the codes were routinely redeemed in less than a minute). Chipotle also organized a stunt in which the brand’s social media team snapped BeReals in Times Square.

Cosmetics brand e.l.f. Beauty, was the first beauty brand to join BeReal. They use their account (@elfyeah) to give users an “inside look” at the company along with special discounts/freebies/specials to their BeReal audience as well.

Beauty brands owned by L'Oréal Group and Procter & Gamble, as well as Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty, are now using BeReal to spark product conversations and share BTS from shoots.

What can brands learn from BeReal?

While there are no guarantees that BeReal will survive in the long term in an increasingly there are definitely benefits to being on the ground floor and testing if it works for your business. Showing behind the scenes photos from your brand, and letting an exclusive pool of people in on that will build up brand trust and loyalty.

Despite this, Digiday reported last October, if the app didn’t move quickly to provide marketers with unique features that could pique their interests, BeReal would become a victim of its fleeting success and see attention spent elsewhere. And even though brands are using it, In October 2022, worldwide downloads reached an average of 15.2 million and has since decreased to around 4.2 million in February 2023, (according to data from Apptopia, a real-time mobile app insights company.

Furthermore, daily active users have also decreased by around 52% from an average of 14.7 million in October last year to around 7.7 million in February.

The only brands that appear to remain on the platform right now, are those that pride themselves on their strength of having a strong tone of voice across social media, and not just an advertising presence.

While the BeReal team doesn’t respond to individual requests for comments, they have posted a statement on the website regarding the platform’s current priority:

“BeReal is free to use, and we don’t have ads. You may be wondering if we’ll have ads or how we think about monetizing the app,” stated the BeReal team. “First, we want to stick around for as long as you’ll have us, but working with brands is not our priority. There are a lot of cool things we want to build, and we’re very lucky to be able to prioritise our time this way.”

It seems that they’re still prioritising making their product the best it can be for it’s users- which isn’t bad, and it could mean that one day there will be room for advertising on it.

Either way, we think the BeReal story shows that brands who are quickly reactive with new social media, tend to have success from it- even if it’s just temporary.