With the emergence of more visual social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and even Twitter, marketing companies are also finding new ways to mine consumer data. In fact, companies like Ditto Labs and Piqora are digging through these types of platforms for “selfies” that could help them draw insights about the consumer for big-brand advertisers.

Image Source: The Wall Street Journal

Marketing companies like Ditto Labs uses technology to scan the photos to identify any brand logos (i.e. Lululemon), the photo’s context (i.e. Is the person smiling? What are they doing?), and any other relevant information. The data then allows marketers to send targeted ads to the user, or help them conduct market research.

While companies like Ditto Labs are only accessing public photos, it’s easy to predict that there will be backlash from users over privacy (if there isn’t any already). After all, posting selfies to be free market research subjects is not something a user would first think of. Otherwise, I think photo mining is an innovative way to understand consumers. There’s no doubt social media and online advertising is getting more visual–there’s just simply too much information thrown at consumers these days. Brands need to find a way to stand out, and I believe those who are able to identify trends outside of text will have a strong competitive advantage. If privacy concerns are taken into account, photo mining is very likely to play a pivotal role in future digital marketing efforts.