Today we dive deeper into the success of BeReal’s ambassador program.
It all began on Friday, February 4, in the basement of a burger shop at Harvard University.
Attendees were offered free admission to a party at Tasty Burger if they downloaded BeReal and added 5 friends.
Have you ever met a college kid who would even think about turning down free food? Exactly.
Their sinister plan was probably to download the app, party hearty, and as soon as they left, delete it. No harm, no foul.
That didn’t go as planned. Nobody deleted the app, because they were literally obsessed.
BeReal was offering something no one had ever seen before. A social media platform that didn’t focus on virality, but on authenticity (just reading that statement feels weird).
The production of unrealistic content for the sake of views and likes on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube has started to really annoy people.
So it came as no surprise that this exposed a huge unfulfilled need in the market. Consumers deeply want more GENUINE content.
Living up to its title of not just another social network, BeReal let its audience know: “We won’t make you famous”, “we won’t sell your data”, and “we won’t make you waste your life scrolling.”
The messaging was as clear as our need for a Christmas vacation.
But before we talk about how BeReal is taking giants like TikTok and IG head-on, let’s pause for a second.
For those of you who have no clue what BeReal is, it’s très simple.
Once a day users are sent a notification to post their BeReal, which is a photo that simultaneously captures an image from your selfie and your regular camera, and combines them in one photo. These notifications are sent randomly throughout the day, so users never know what to expect.
And you only have 2 minutes to post once you get the notification.
That’s it. Now back to the nitty-gritty details.
BeReal is up against tough contenders.
With over 1.5B monthly active users, it’s safe to say that TikTok is used by nearly every human who owns a phone. Instagram is a veteran that has almost everyone’s respect (if they could just stop copying everything TikTok does…) And Twitter is now owned by the richest man in the world.
But the holy trilogy’s not the only problem. The BeReal app isn’t really built to achieve exponential growth.
Users can’t go viral, there are no funny memes to share with your best friends, and influencers can’t do their influencing. Making it practically impossible to expand as a platform.
What everyone would expect to happen is the following: A team of bad-ass, experienced professionals comes into play and designs a high-production campaign to market BeReal.
Insert: sound effect of wrong answer.
Some college students were the reason behind BeReal’s take over.
BeReal started an ambassador program built around empowering their ambassadors.
Too risky? Maybe. But you know how it goes, scared money don’t make money.
Very different from common ambassador programs, BeReal ambassadors manage a marketing budget, host parties, and execute their own creative. And they get paid for it.
This was the perfect opportunity for college students to make some easy money, simply by promoting BeReal on their campuses.
The more signups you got, the more money you made, and that meant more users for BeReal too. Couldn’t get more win-win than this.
So what can BeLearned from BeReal?
- Trust in people > trust in brands. Ambassador programs can be so effective when done right!
- Authenticity is the new trend. Humanize your brand on all social media platforms and you will stand out from the crowd.
- People like to follow people, not companies. Again, be human.
