BeReal Promotion: The Out-of-the-Box Marketing Guide in 2024 [+ Examples]

BeReal promotion is the next best thing for brands that want to connect with Gen Z and Millennial audiences. Because this social app is new to the scene, most brands don’t know how to use this app, what content to post, or how to engage users.

Since its launch, this free app has developed impressive traction and popularity. In Germany, it is the third-best free social app, and in the UK, Canada, and France, it’s rated the fourth-best free social app.

Most of this app’s traffic comes from searches and referrals, highlighting how quickly BeReal spreads through word-of-mouth marketing.

But why is this social app so popular?

What makes BeReal different from other social platforms like Instagram?

And how do brands leverage the BeReal campaign to optimize audience engagement and boost brand awareness?

You don’t have to figure this out on your own!

We have an ultimate guide on the BeReal campaign, how the app works, and why businesses should use it for organic advertising in 2024!

Plus, we have the top three examples of BeReal promotion and what you can learn from these brands.

Ready to learn about BeReal and connect with customers like never before?

Here we go!

What is BeReal Promotion?

Launched in France in 2010, BeReal is a photo-sharing social app that connects people without the filtered façade typical social platforms promote. Concepts like influencer culture, filters, and Photoshop are against the app’s premise. It’s about sharing raw photos that reflect your true self.

By August 2022, the app had 10 million daily active users, a shocking 29200% increase from the previous year. And as of September 2022, it sported 28 million downloads. 

Although BeReal is a French-based platform, the app is most popular in the US (12 mil downloads), the UK (5 mil downloads), and then France (2 mil downloads). The primary demographic of users downloading the app are female Gen Z and Millenials. 

With such rapid interest in authenticity, this app might be here to stay. Powerhouse social apps aren’t released often, but the excitement around BeReal suggests this may be another channel for brands to engage with targeted audiences.

The biggest obstacle to BeReal is that the app strictly prohibits commercial advertising and promotion. Businesses can’t create dedicated marketing profiles. However, many brands have approached BeReal correctly and garnered impressive results. We’ll explore that soon!

Source: Latasha James 

Why Should You Market Your Brand on BeReal?

Authentic and Organic Advertising.

What makes BeReal unique compared to other social apps is its promotion of real, unfiltered content. Nothing is skewed in favor of the user posting it. Instead, this app encourages users to take off their social media masks and connect with others in a much more natural and relatable way.

This heavy advocacy for transparency and authenticity is an advantage for businesses. The app’s sentiment already lays the stage for organic, customer-centric advertising. Because brands can’t use paid advertising campaigns on BeReal, users won’t feel your content is as invasive as paid ads may be.

BeReal gives your brand the perfect platform to flaunt your human side and share your brand with people rather than sell it. You can share behind-the-scenes content, funny videos, or how your brand plans to impact its target audience. 

Customer Engagement.

Consistent, buyer-centric engagement strategies are the best route to building brand loyalty. The more you engage and interest your target audience, the more likely they will stay connected and invested in your brand. If your content is captivating, users may also feel motivated to check out your website or other social channels. 

There are many organic ways businesses can use BeReal to drive customer engagement. Remember, although you can’t outright use paid ads or influencer marketing, this is another bustling social channel for finding and connecting with ideal buyers.

The app unintentionally helps brands optimize customer engagements through one global daily push notification at a set time. All users receive one push notification daily, encouraging them to stop what they’re doing and post a real photo. You have two minutes to do this, so the content is in the moment and authentic. 

The downside is you can’t do much strategic content planning for promoting BeReal. However, this one mass push notification keeps users hooked on the platform and makes them look forward to a daily “task.” 

Community Marketing

Community marketing may be more vital to some businesses than others. However, building a community helps secure loyal customers, steady referrals, and a positive online reputation. Community marketing provides many profitable perks to brands, and BeReal promotion can enhance this.

With so many users of BeReal, you’ll find target audience segments if your ideal buyer personas are Gen Z or Millennials. This means you’ll have another digital space to connect with targeted users and create awareness about your brand. 

The best way to use community marketing for BeReal and vice versa is to encourage users to follow your profile. You can promote your BeReal profile on other social channels and your website. 

Relevant Marketing.

If you want to scale your business, you have to get in with the trends. The BeReal platform is blowing up, and more users join every day. There’s no certainty that BeReal will stand through time like Twitter or Facebook. This social photo-sharing app could fall out of fashion tomorrow and, in a couple of years, be replaced by another app.

You don’t know how long BeReal will have this hype, so leverage this platform while it’s trending. Don’t miss out on the potential it could offer your brand. And for stagnating startups or businesses, a new, fresh platform with tons of buzz could be just what you need. 

6 Top BeReal Campaign Strategies

1.Behind-the-Scenes Content Promotion

Behind-the-scenes content is a fantastic way to personalize your social media presence and connect with users. This content gives your audience a peek into your brand and what goes into your products. It’s a great time to share your brand identity, voice, and values and build personal relationships with users.

Your audience would most likely enjoy such native content. Users find it easier to relate to and engage with genuine brands that evoke emotion. A few ideas of behind-the-scenes content include meetings, team-building exercises, daily office life, and projects. Market whatever you want to share with your audience to personify your brand. 

2.Promote Mental Health and Wellbeing

Mental health is a popular topic among Gen Z and Millennial audiences because they seem impacted by it the most. 35% of Millennials receive mental health treatment, and Gen Z individuals were the most to rate their mental health as fair or poor.

Despite how typical mental health is among Gen Z and Millennials, they still struggle with conveying how they feel. In response, many brands like Maybelline have started mental health awareness campaigns and provided a WhatsApp hotline to offer support. 

This campaign will matter to buyers because it’s personal and relates to what they experience. You’re dealing with the same demographics for BeReal promotion, so approach mental health awareness and promote concepts like self-love and self-acceptance. Let your audience know you love them for who they are, and so should they!

Be consistent and passionate about your efforts, and ensure you support and believe in the cause as much as you claim to. There’s no better way to get a bad reputation quickly than being the “brand who capitalized on poor mental health”. 

3.Use Relatable, Buyer-Centric Content

Promoting mental health awareness because it’s relatable to BeReal’s user base requires customer-centric content. BeReal campaign is about being transparent and genuine with your audience, making customer-centric content imperative. 

Your audience must respond to your content for you to engage them and build a community. How well you curate your content determines how likely your BeReal campaign will succeed. Based on customer analytics, understand what content your target audience would like to see. Evaluate your performance to see if this accurately aligns with the user’s interaction with your brand.

You may find that the content you’re promoting is attracting the wrong buyers, or you could uncover a new market segment for your brand.

Find different approaches to test content and evaluate if your angle works. But if you have established followings on other social channels, testing your content for BeReal promotion is much easier. Base your content on the content you use on social channels that share the same characteristics as your BeReal audience. 

If you expand your current social communities to BeReal, you’ll know what content to use based on what interests these followers. Track your engagement consistently to identify impactful content that engages your audiences and conveys your brand message and value. 

4.Expand or Build a Community

If you don’t already have an established online community, you can create one on BeReal. But if you have a community, expand it through BeReal campaign. 

To expand your community to BeReal, or build one, market your BeReal profile on other social channels. Ensure your BeReal profile isn’t too salesy. Remember, BeReal doesn’t allow commercial advertising.

You can promote your BeReal profile using posts, stories, or other forms of content. Consider incentives to give users extra motivation to follow your BeReal profile. These incentives include discounts, coupon codes, or exclusive access to gated content. Be creative in your approach and ensure your incentive matters to your buyers.

After developing traffic to your BeReal community, you must maintain consistency. Stick to regular posting, engage with other users, share organic content and follow the rest of these strategies!

Your BeReal community matters because it remains a powerful resource after your campaign. Communities welcome opportunities for referral marketing, customer loyalty, and user-generated content to secure credibility and authority. 

5.Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)

BeReal provides an app with a fantastic opportunity to leverage UGC. Collaborate with your followers to create unique, branded content to boost brand awareness, customer engagement, and your online presence.

There are many ways to do this, depending on your audience. If your followers are a bunch of professionals, you could create fun and informative content to share expert tips or advice. Or, perhaps your users are dog lovers. You can create quirky photos of followers interacting with their dogs in a silly or loving way.

What we love most about this BeReal strategy is that it goes longer than quick customer interactions. You get to collaborate with your audience and include them in your marketing strategy.

 

6.Implement Lifestyle Marketing Tactics

You don’t have to be a lifestyle marketing brand to steal a few lifestyle marketing tricks. The aim of lifestyle marketing is for brands to sell a way of life rather than a product. You’re not going to be doing any selling on BeReal. But you can promote a way of life that resonates with your brand identity and values. 

If your brand is passionate about a movement or trend, encompass that in BeReal promotion. Use this platform as a medium to show your audience how to practice your values and share your brand’s mission. 

Let’s return to selling products for dog lovers. You can use content that promotes values and concepts like caring for dogs, contributing to dog shelters, or volunteering in animal awareness campaigns and movements.

The BeReal campaign gives you a unique opportunity to be raw and honest with your audience. There’s no better chance to create and promote a way of life packed with your brand’s values and missions, aimed at adding value to your audience and connecting them to your brand. 

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3 Best BeReal Campaign Examples

1.Chipotle.

Chipotle once again proved they got the assignment and jumped on the BeReal promotion bandwagon before any brand could. Because Gen Z and Millennials make up more than half of Chipotle’s customer base, it made sense to give the BeReal app a go.

To get started, Chipotle wanted to boost its profile. They designed their campaign with this objective and rewarded the first 100 followers with a promo code for free entrée.

This tactic worked, and within 30 minutes, all the promo codes were gone! Thanks to their fiery start, Chipotle now has over 2000 BeReal friends. 

Chipotle posts every day when the notification strikes! They keep their content as natural as possible and avoid advertising and sales tactics.

The key takeaways:

• Use a valuable and quick incentive to build a BeReal following.
• Keep your first attempt simple and small to test the waters before going all in.
• Be as organic about your approach and content as possible.

2.e.l.f. Cosmetics

Although e.l.f. Cosmetics didn’t beat Chipotle’s BeReal campaign; this was the first beauty brand on the platform. e.l.f. Cosmetics chose to launch its BeReal profile on Friday, August 5th, 2022. Compared to Chipotle, this cosmetics brand was much grander about its marketing entrance.

e.l.f. Cosmetics offered the first 150 followers limited-time promo codes for a five-piece skincare collection. 

This beauty brand took it a step further, giving users a reason to stick around on the platform. e.l.f. Cosmetics promised behind-the-scenes content and sneak peeks into office life and product development. 

Once the campaign got on its feet, e.l.f. Cosmetics stuck to its promise and posted various forms of organic content. Followers would view content like daily office life, co-worker banter, and “unfiltered insights” into product campaigns and development.

As e.l.f. Cosmetics already has a solid connection with its audience, so BeReal Campaign was a little easier. 

The key takeaways:

• Find ways to motivate your audience to want to remain engaged on BeReal.
• Understand how you can combine your and BeReal’s values to promote this platform’s premise and what you want to achieve. 
• Follow through on your promises!

3.Trident X Sour Patch Kids.

Once noticing the potential of BeReal from brands like Chipotle, the Trident and Sour Patch collaboration decided to leverage this platform, too!

BeReal promotion made sense to these brands because the user demographics met their target audience demographics. Using BeReal, Trident and Sour Patch Kids hoped to create awareness and drive traction to their product collaborations. Although it’s unclear how exactly these brands went about the BeReal campaign, they’re one of the few that’s tried and tested this social channel!

The key takeaways:

• Stay ahead of trends among your audience demographics.
• Consider BeReal for a specific campaign if marketing your overall brand doesn’t appeal to you.

Conclusion

BeReal campaign is the next best thing, and brands like Chipotle and e.l.f. Cosmetics show us the potential of this social app. With BeReal, you can connect to your audience through organic and authentic content that promotes your brand values.

BeReal goes against the grain and motivates users to share raw, unfiltered pictures to embrace themselves and each other. With such strong messaging, this app is a fantastic way to build audience relationships like never before.

References

Business of Apps: BeReal Revenue and Usage Statistics (2024)

ChConline: Generation Z Reported the Most Mental Health Problems

Data.ai: BeReal Surpassed 10 Million Cumulative Downloads to Date

SimilarWeb: BeReal Statistics

The Information: BeReal Counts 10 Million Daily Users