A Marketer’s Guide to Evaluating and Leveraging Emerging Social App, BeReal

By: Clayton Durant, Senior Manager of Emerging Media at MikeWorldWide and Megan Hueter, Senior Vice President, Digital at MikeWorldWide

Emerging social media apps are nothing new. More than 3,500 apps hit the Apple app store every day. While only some are social media-based, all these apps are competing for more than their fair share of attention. And with the attention economy in steady decline since the peak of the pandemic, that resource has become infinitely harder to capture at scale. So, when a newly arrived platform like BeReal hits the top spot in the US on Apple Inc.’s App Store, it is no wonder marketers and communication professionals turn their heads to evaluate the potential opportunity.   

One of the fastest-growing apps in the social media space, BeReal is a social media platform with no filters, edits, or likes, focusing on realistic and unedited content. With a mission to bring out “who your friends really are” and create more authentic friendships online, it’s striking a chord with Gen-Z. Since the start of 2022, BeReal has seen over a 315% growth driving an impressive 7.67 million users predominately coming from the US and France territories according to data from Apptopia. It is this kind of growth and scale that has caught the eye of some key investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, who led a $30 million Series A round in June. BeReal’s growth has been so impressive that in its upcoming Series B round, Insider reported that the company could have an evaluation of more than $600 million.

Although this platform is being viewed by many as potentially the next social media “unicorn,” brands need to carefully evaluate whether BeReal is an appropriate platform for the content they want to push out into the market. Marketers need to consider the reality of how their brand looks and feels “unfiltered.” If a brand’s core image relies heavily on touch-ups, editing, or flashy content, BeReal may not be a natural fit.

For brands, building a presence in new emerging platforms can pay big dividends. According to Deloitte’s 2021 Global Marketing Tends Consumer survey, brands are seeing younger generations from Gen-Z to Millennials purchase more often from emerging channels such as social media, virtual reality, and even voice assistants. Brands that invest in early-stage platforms can build the rules of engagement and curate relationships with audiences who are more digitally savvy than ever before. For brands wanting to test their hand at BeReal, we recommend leveraging the platform for three specific areas:

Don’t Make Ads, BeReal:

Apps like TikTok have started to erode the acceptance and trust of the kind of polished advertisements that have traditionally been served to consumers through social and linear media. For example, when TikTok launched its TikTok for Business channel, the platform had a simple idea: “Don’t make ads, make TikToks.” As BeReal gains traction amongst Gen-Z consumers, brands may need to adopt the mantra “Don’t make ads, BeReal”.

This move to authentic content comes as WordPress hosting company WP Engine found in their yearly study that 82% of Gen-Z consumers trust a company more if it uses images of real customers in its advertising. In the spirit of being real, brands can leverage BeReal as a platform to give consumers exclusive opportunities at seeing behind-the-scenes content that makes “unpolished” and “unedited” feel cool and exclusive.

Empower and Mobilize a Community of Gen-Z Superfans:

Today’s brands are putting community building at the center of their social strategies. For example, brands like Sephora have built platforms like Beauty Talk – a well-organized forum where users can ask questions, share ideas with the brand, and chat with other brand enthusiasts. For Gen-Z, an online community is the most important component of their social experience. For example, two-thirds (65%) of Gen-Z consumers feel more confident online when using community-focused social apps like Discord or Twitch over timeline-driven apps like Instagram and Twitter. As a community-driven app, BeReal gives marketers the opportunity to build an online community without the mental health impacts traditional social platforms put on young people. In building a BeReal online community, marketers will need to embrace the idea of giving back to their consumers and making them the focal point of everything the brand does on the platform. For example, instead of offering digital goods or collectibles, brands should focus on enhancing their BeReal audience’s real life, providing in-person goodies or events to show them the power of real authentic moments that live outside of the digital sphere. Empowering this digitally savvy community and turning them into brand soldiers ready to be activated at a moment's notice is invaluable in today’s marketing ecosystem.

BeReal Can Champion Wellness and Mental Health:

As more young people struggle with mental health, brands can step up and help. For brands looking to showcase authenticity, champion reality, and build a culture that embraces mental health, BeReal can be a great platform where that specific content can live. For example, maybe it's a fashion brand that shows models wearing their clothing without any touch-ups. Maybe it’s an influencer who uses the platform alongside a brand to show a less polished and more human version of themselves. Whatever the content, brands and influencers alike can tap BeReal’s platform and audience to champion authentic reality where likes, comments, shares, and followers don’t dictate acceptance or overall happiness.