The rise of BeReal: why brands should choose connection over perfection
The growing popularity of photo-sharing app BeReal reflects a thirst for authenticity that marketers shouldn’t ignore, writes Suzie Shaw, CEO at We Are Social.
If, like me, you have Gen Z children to inform you about the latest internet trends, then I’m sure you’ve heard of BeReal. It’s a photo-sharing app that, once a day, at a random time, prompts users to post a photo of themselves and what they’re up to, with a two-minute deadline. Since users don’t know what time the BeReal notification will go off, they can’t really ‘plan’ for a post: the reverse camera takes a picture of you as you snap your surroundings, leaving you with no time to stage the perfect photo of the exciting slice of life you’d want to share with your followers.
BeReal invites users to enjoy “a new and unique way to discover who your friends really are in their daily life“. The French-developed social media platform is all about unapologetically embracing authenticity. As there are no appearance-enhancing filters available, all photos are unaltered and usually have bad lighting and unappealing compositions. Quite a departure from the polish of Instagram. But people keep coming back for more. Why?
With the app now reportedly up to 10 million daily active users, rising from just 10,000 a little over a year ago, its momentum is obvious. It has also exploded in popularity in Australia, with more than 1.4 million downloads since April. BeReal is the most authentic way of being present on social media, and that’s increasingly valued by all people online, especially Gen Z.
