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What Images Get Pinned On Pinterest? Red Beats Blue, Portrait Over Landscape & Lose The Faces

Amy Gesenhues on May 31, 2013 at 12:22 pm

According to visual analytics and marketing platform Curalate, brand images on Pinterest are 23 percent more likely to receive a repin if the image does not contain a face. Using custom algorithms to evaluate more than 500,000 Pinterest images, Curalate researched how an image’s visual characteristics influence social media activity.

Examining 30 different visual characteristics, including color, texture, lightness and saturation, the study found that images with lots of color are preferred, while red, orange and brown images are twice as likely to be repinned over blue pictures. Images of medium lightness are 20 times more likely to be repinned versus mostly black images, and eight times more likely to be repined than white images.

While the study confirmed that brand images lacking a face resulted in more pins, it also noted that Pinterest has 4.25 times more images without faces, than images with faces.

Other images more likely to be repinned include vertical “portrait” style images with 2.3 to 4.5 aspect ratios over long or wide images. Images with multiple dominant colors receive the most repins overall, with 3.25 times more repins per image than single-color images. Images with 50 percent saturation are four times more likely to be repinned than images with 100 percent saturation, and 10 times more likely than completely desaturated images.

Background and texture also play a role in an image’s popularity. The study found that images with less than 30 percent background are repinned the most, with repins dropping off at a rate of two to four times for images that contain 40 percent or more of background space. Images with smooth textures are preferred more than rough textures, earning up to 17 times more repins.

According to Curalate, “This type of data is critical to brands and retailers, as it helps them predict which images will prompt consumer action before they post on visual sites like Pinterest and Instagram.”

Postscript: Curalate is scheduled to release a formal announcement next week that will include research connecting image characteristics with consumer behavior on Pinterest. Marketing Land will update this story with further details from the study when it becomes available.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media's General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.