There’s a lot of information hidden in a selfie. Look beyond the goofy facial expression — each photo is a time-stamped, geotagged master key capable of unlocking a treasure trove of social and behavioral data.
Venues are starting to wise up to the wealth of information embedded in photos, especially when shared over social networks. It’s also a free content channel for venues — an arena full of fans can capture thousands more images and angles than a house photographer.
For a startup like WeSawIt, the opportunity lies in the ability to organize and analyze those photos and videos. The L.A.-based firm uses a relatively simple algorithm that crosschecks GPS locations and time stamps from tweets and mobile phone photos with a giant database of events. By knowing when and where events take place, WeSawIt can use simple tools like Google Maps and Instagram to compile all of the photos and video taken at the event, and organize them for venues in a simple interface.
If Cara Vanderhook wants to see all of the photos from Miley Cyrus’ concert at Staples Center, Los Angeles, the arena’s director of Communications & Social Media just needs to log in to her WeSawIt account and she’ll have access to every photo posted on Instagram and Twitter, along with all video content uploaded to YouTube and Vine.
“There’s a lot of great candid content of the fans enjoying the event,” said Vanderhook. “We get access to images that our house photographers aren’t capturing — everything from merch shots to fans in the suites.”
Vanderhook said fan photos are reposted on the arena’s Facebook page and website, and she’s created promotions for the top photos of the month in their newsletter and on the arena’s own 1,400-screen CCTV network. It also creates a content channel for nights when she doesn’t have a photographer on staff — or for exciting things that happen after the usual three-song limit has expired.
“It’s an extra tool for us to find content — and it’s a digital-photo archiving system for the fans who are here during events.”
WeSawIt was created by French entrepreneur Thibault Mathieu and was originally designed to aggregate news content — basically using geolocational information and timestamps to capture user content from individuals who were in or near major breaking news.
“We were approached by the Troubadour in West Hollywood to use our technology to help them gather and collect their fan photos and realized that there was an opportunity to build something that didn’t exist,” he said.
WeSawIt charges venues a monthly fee for their service — on the high end, large buildings like Staples Center pay about $500 per month — and WeSawIt provides a number of integrations that allow venues to stream the content on their websites and Facebook pages.
Besides marketing content, there’s an even bigger upside for fan analytics, Mathieu noted. Because WeSawIt compiles user content from all concerts, even at buildings that aren’t current clients, venues can learn what other events their fans are attending. When aggregated for volume, marketers have access to a huge swath of behavioral data that could be far more comprehensive than what a ticketing company could provide.
That could be a game-changer, giving venue marketers a tool to truly understand all of the events their fans attend, he said. Having access to a list of every event a fan attends could provide venues with a major competitive advantage and the opportunity to adjust the way they market and program their facilities.
Interviewed for this story: Cara Vanderhook, (213) 742-7273; Thibault Mathieu, (323) 303-3306
