Are brands ready for Jelly?

By if-admin | March 18, 2014

Before Destiny’s Child ‘Bootylicious’ starts playing in your head… stop! I’m referring to a different sort of Jelly – the question-and-answer app launched in 2014 by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone which has already become the 76th most downloaded app in the UK.

What is Jelly?

Jelly is a social media app which is founded on the basic principle ‘Let’s help each other’. The tool is designed to act as a human search engine, which allows users to pose questions, often accompanied by photos, and receive answers from connections within their online circle. All you have to do is point, shoot and ask.

Too afraid to ask where a passer-by bought their shoes from? No problem. Just take a picture and ask through Jelly – the app will pose the question to your extended social network.

How can brands benefit from Jelly?

Biz Stone recently announced plans which would allow brands to advertise from the app,  on one condition, that they maintain Jelly’s altruistic ambition, that answering customer queries is priority:

“I want to make sure that we do it in such that people can only give us money if they are also helping people on Jelly. If you can help people on Jelly really well then you can give us money.”

Although the company’s philosophy  heavily advocates helping others, the platform does present marketing opportunities for brands to show their expertise and to engage and interact with their fan base.

Asda playing catchphrase to drive product awareness

Big brands such as ASOS and Asda were fast to test the opportunities on offer. Asda posted 5 questions from the platform to its followers. One included a fun ‘catchphrase’ type image, which asked users to guess the name of a product sold in-store.

Can you guess what it is?

Although the supermarket received a mere 20 responses, the campaign demonstrated the fun advertising power offered by the platform, especially in building a loyal fanbase.

Although the social media platform doesn’t currently stand out amongst the likes of Facebook or its sister network Twitter, brands are experimenting, and for now it will be interesting to keep an eye on how they creatively mix the platform into their social media marketing and customer-brand relationship strategies.