Vero rockets into the world of social media

Vero has blown up this week. In a number of days, the social media platform has grown to over 3 million users. With little history, users have signed up to the dream of a ‘better Instagram’ and its brand identity has helped sell it.

The platform is dark with turquoise accents – a Lynx/Axe meets Spotify aesthetic that appears to be targeting 18-35s. Its logomark ‘V’ is a heavy equilateral triangle that looks like a play symbol, while the remaining characters balance the complete wordmark with a light sans font. The user experience is similar enough to other social media platforms to be intuitive, but unlike Instagram users are able to post entertainment recommendations (books, films/tv, music), links as well as photos/videos within their feeds. Visually, the system is consistent and distinctive.

Vero’s USP is that it’s a democratic alternative to Instagram/Facebook. It describes the history of social media by saying, “as time passed, an imbalance began to form between the interests of the platforms and the best interests of the users” and it instead displays chronological posts, algorithm free with no ads. Furthermore, Vero has hypothesised that, “When you can control who sees what, you can behave in a way that is more natural, which we believe ends up being better for you.” By allowing users to make posts visible to chosen groups Vero is playing into its ‘True Social’ slogan, setting itself up to integrate the platform into the lifestyle of its users.

While Vero functions as a social media platform, the identity it sells is that of a lifestyle brand for those who #liveauthentic. Whether Vero is a true Instagram/Facebook replacement will depend on whether its user growth continues to skyrocket, a threshold that will only be crossed if Millennials find the True Social dream worth rebuilding their social media profiles on.

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