Beli’s Midyear Snack: A Masterclass in Data-Driven Marketing and User Engagement

I’ve been completely hooked on Beli for the past few months (an invite-only restaurant reviewing and tracking social media app - think X for food), and their latest feature really caught my attention: my “Midyear Snack,” a lite version of Spotify’s year-end “Wrapped” campaign. It recaps my culinary journey so far with infographics showcasing my favorite meals, dishes, and the cities I’ve explored, among others. While the visuals and copy aren’t quite as polished as Spotify’s, I absolutely loved it for two reasons:

💡 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 & 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁:

a. I've used Beli primarily as a food diary while eating my way through LA and didn’t expect to engage with the app beyond that. Now, after seeing others share their cool Midyear Snacks on Instagram, I’m compelled to be more diligent in my rankings (with photos!) so that I too can become a top Beli diner in LA by the end of the year. 🙋🏻‍♀️

b. It’s midyear – typically, we see recaps at year-end (Beli did this last year with their "2023 Plated” campaign), but someone at Beli decided to flip the script. Great strategy to time this without all the other recap noise in the market.

📈 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:

I love receiving personalized, byte-sized snippets of my data & habits wrapped in quirky analogies. Since I’m a new user on Beli, my insights aren’t as detailed and fun as those of more seasoned users but I still thoroughly enjoyed my recap.

I have to admit that as an avid runner, I’ve been waiting for a Nike Run Club version of “Wrapped”. Imagine receiving a fun, unexpected stat about how many miles I’ve run this year – say, the equivalent of running from LA to Singapore (not that I’ve run that much, but you get the gist). Data can be incredibly engaging, and I’d love to see more of my regularly used apps adopt this concept.

Brands don’t always have to dish out relatively big-budget, splashy integrated marketing campaigns to engage consumers and Beli just proved it; their Instagram stories are inundated with reposts and I’d be curious to see if there’s an uptick in their MAU after this initiative. Big kudos to the team at Beli for a great product engagement feature, especially given their smaller scale relative to the giants I’ve mentioned. Can’t wait to see what they cook up next 🍝