ShareIQ helps brands track their product images across the web

As more and more product images get shared on platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr, ShareIQ says it can help brands understand what’s going on.

Founder and CEO Brian Killen used to work as the head of strategy at marketing company Acxiom, and he recalled being told by a retail marketing executive, “I see my pictures all over Pinterest and websites and all over the globe, but there’s no product information, no detail, I don’t know how people discovered them. How do I get people to know that they can buy it from me?” So he started ShareIQ to answer those questions.

While other companies like Curalate and Olapic have also built marketing tools around social photo-sharing, Killen said ShareIQ is uniquely focused on helping brands understand how their images spreading across the web, and how those images are contributing to the company’s bottom line.

ShareIQ products include an analytics platform covering things like a brand’s most engaged content and the total audience reached by that content. It also includes a “share tree” displaying how different users and publishers are spreading the content, and data on how a brand’s performance stacks up against competitors.

The company also offers a tool for creating “custom audiences” of people who have seen or shared a brand’s image. So if you scrolled past a photo of a cool product but had no idea how to buy it, you might soon start seeing ads that actually direct you to the product page.

Behind the scenes, Killen said ShareIQ has developed a new approach to storing images and associated data, one that allows the company to “really get massive scale, super high accuracy, super fast matching and speed, and very, very low cost on the server.” As a result, the company says it has the infrastructure to keep up with all the new content being added across the web each day, with 750 billion images processed so far.

And while ShareIQ only officially launched this week, its customers already include Tommy Hilfiger. The company (which was founded in Berlin) is also opening its first US office in New York City.