Australian online fashion brand Beginning Boutique launched an account with trending social app BeReal in mid-August. The move is aimed to generate engagement through the brand’s Gen Z consumer base.
Speaking with Ragtrader, Beginning Boutique's PR and social coordinator, Ivy Mullins said the app is used across the brand’s internal team, allowing its consumers to see the business from a new perspective.
“It's allowed us to employ digital storytelling in a way we've never really been able to before; we can show those real aspects that you don't usually get to see on Instagram and TikTok,” said Mullins.
“There are no filters, there's no curation, there's no planning content. That two-minute timer goes off, and whoever's the closest to the BeReal phone – whether it be the warehouse assistant, or the girls designing the clothes, or whoever’s on shoot – we just snap a photo and post.”
“It really panders to that raw, real, unfiltered social media that Gen Z is really wanting. They grew up behind a phone, they can spot an unauthentic ad from a mile away.
“What we're trying to do is show them the real aspects of our business that they can really connect to.”
So far, Beginning Boutique has around 2,000 “friends”, with more requests coming through each day.
BeReal was launched in 2020, but has been gaining traction in 2022. So far this year, estimates show around 40 million downloads of the app, with around 40% in the US alone.
BeReal asks users to post unfiltered photos of themselves once a day, and users need to post a photo to see others.
To mark the launch of its account on BeReal, Beginning Boutique ran a promotion of 50% for 15 minutes.
“We had quite a few usages of that code, despite not really having very many followers at the time.
“We had to post on our others socials letting people know that we were on BeReal and that generated quite a bit of buzz.
“People started posting, taking screenshots, posting it on their social media, posting it on TikTok, people started to talk about how brands are going to use BeReal.
“We aren't planning on doing promos like that all the time, we do want to keep that authentic feel to it and show behind the scenes and things like that.”
So far, the initial post reached 90 reacts. But, according to Mullins, because the app is still quite new, it’s hard to gauge statistics.
“We get roughly 30 BeReal emojis – which is when someone reacts – and probably 10 to 15 comments on every BeReal post.
“So far, we've tried to really show all different aspects of the business – in the warehouse, on shoot, during fits, at our desks, whatever it might be.”
Despite the growing engagement, however, Mullins said the app will need to evolve in order to grow its viewership.
“It's kind of similar to Wordle in the sense that it's fun, but after a while the novelty will wear off.
“If they continue to develop the app, and bring on new features, and continue to engage Gen Z, then it will continue to grow the viewership.”