Sunday MBA provides ideas on running better businesses and succeeding in the modern workplace, this week from MIT Sloan Management Review.
The explosion of data has been a topic of considerable interest in recent years, but another phenomenon has received less attention: the explosion of visual content. It is estimated that 3.8 trillion photos were taken in all of human history until mid-2011, while 1 trillion photos were taken in 2015 alone.
Many of the successful recent entrants into the social media space, such as Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Vine, Periscope, and Meerkat, emphasize visual media. Platforms that did not originate as chiefly visual — Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter — are starting to emphasize visual content.
Brands are also expanding visual assets on these platforms. Nearly 60 percent of all digital impressions are now driven by images. Unsurprisingly, 70 percent of marketers are planning to increase their use of original images and video, meaning they are not just repurposing images and video but are creating new visual content. Those who emphasize visual content are rewarded. Posts with visuals receive 94 percent more page visits than those without. Sixty-seven percent of consumers consider clear, detailed images to carry more weight than product information or customer ratings.
Physiology of experiencing visual content
The reasons for the explosion and effects of visual content are also tied to the biological mechanisms for how humans consume information. Sight is our strongest sense: 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. As a result of this hardwiring, visuals are processed faster in the brain than text.
Using visuals as a primary method of communication continues a longer trend toward short-form content and diminishing attention spans. In 2000, average customer attention span was estimated at 12 seconds, while today's estimate is 8.25 seconds. Because it only takes humans about a quarter-second to process an image, we can communicate much more information within these time spans with visual content.
In 2014, the use of infographics in marketing rose to 52 percent from 9 percent. Publishers who market with infographics achieve 12 percent more growth in traffic.
The analytics challenge of visual data
While visual information has clearly exploded, the methods used to search and analyze that data continue to lag. Images often evade traditional tracking and analytics used to monitor audience sentiment and intent. Early versions of visual search were based on text embedded in metadata.
The evolution of search technology will allow richer data analysis that takes account of the complexity and context contained in images and video. Already, search tools are becoming more sophisticated, allowing users to search on visual characteristics of content (shapes, color, texture, etc.). For example, the Firefly search app in Amazon.com's smartphone provides customers a link to buy many products just by taking a picture of them.
Companies such as Quid have developed technology that crawls the Web and produces visual clusters to identify keyword relations and associations. The demand for professionals with data analysis skills is skyrocketing — and more so for professionals with analytic and visualization skills, who can both show and communicate the story the data tells.
Managerial resource implications
The rise of visual content has implications for every form of company communication. As we become saturated with visual imagery, we also become more sophisticated consumers of it. Adding a stock image into a post or an e-mail is not sufficient. Quality imagery is a must, especially in the face of the millions of iPhone owners turned amateur photographers. Visual assets demand more time and investment to stand out among the trillions of images competing for consumer attention.
Visual assets have taken on a broader role. They are responsible for continually and consistently representing your brand, communicating your value proposition, and cultivating brand image on a daily basis.
This article is adapted from "The Rise of Visual Content Online" by Gerald C. Kane, an associate professor of information systems at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, and Alexandra Pear, a senior at Boston College. Copyright 2015 MIT Sloan Management Review. All rights reserved.