PARIS — Three years after acquiring visual content agency Imaxtree, Launchmetrics, the data research and insights company for fashion, luxury and beauty, is presenting its new photo and video content licensing platform, dubbed Spotlight.
The move, which is the fruit of the integration of Imaxtree’s large visual database into Launchmetrics’ brand performance measurement tools, is part of the firm’s strategy to expand its customer base from around 1,200 clients currently by targeting small and medium-sized companies.
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“Spotlight is our product that will encompass all of our launch to market activity like samples, events, galleries, and everything for small and medium businesses,” Michael Jaïs, chief executive officer of Launchmetrics, told WWD.
The plan is to merge the platform known as GPS Radar into Spotlight, meaning in the near future, for example, editors can directly request samples from photos.
Launchmetrics also sees content creators as a future avenue of growth for the content licensing platform.
“We realize that we’ve got across our customers a lot of media and publishers, but we are starting to have more and more influencers that are using our tools on a daily basis, and for them, branding is even more important than for the brands,” Jais said.
In order to cater to this constituency, Launchmetrics is working to develop tools to run not only quantitative, but also qualitative, analysis of its assets. “It means the ability to define for any brand or any creator if they are on the right storytelling strategy, content strategy, and we’ve been investing in the technology to get that,” Jais said.
For example, in an analysis of beauty accounts in the last semester, Launchmetrics found that the majority of posts were about product results, even though it was the most underperforming topic in terms of audience engagement. Conversely, posts about routines were less common, but had an engagement rate that was three times more efficient than the average.
For content creators, the technology will allow them to analyze in detail whether certain images are more appealing than others.
“So maybe they have the right strategy, but the colors they are using, or the form, is not right compared to what is working in terms of engagement. This is huge, because it means that there is a way, finally, to understand whether the investment that you’ve made on content is worth it or not, and what should be the strategy for each type of asset,” Jais said.
Earlier this year, Launchmetrics acquired its largest competitor, media planning firm DMR Group, and said it was aiming for $100 million in annual recurring revenue by 2025. It’s on track to post revenues of more than $50 million in 2022, and says it is aiming for an initial public offering “in the next few years.”