- Visual brand monitoring across social media photos, integrated CRM and turning consumer-generated photos into social advertisements - all now possible via the new Pongr offering

BOSTON, May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Photo marketing platform, Pongr announced today it has successfully integrated technology from Sightec, enabling brands to leverage its social media photo scanning technology while also combining social CRM and advertising data. The technology integration is a direct response to engagement-minded brands seeking a way to monitor and respond to the flood of photos being shot and shared by consumers across the globe.

"We're making a big bet on mobile marketing – specifically as it relates to user-generated photos – across a wide spectrum of social and digital channels," said Pongr CEO and co-founder Jamie Thompson. "We truly believe better utilization of consumer-generated visual content will impact marketing and brand campaigns by increasing the intelligence behind ad targeting, integrating shopper marketing and driving retail insights that are connected with social behavior."

The milestone comes less than 90 days after Pongr licensed a broad IP portfolio from Sightec, a computer vision R&D company focused on the analysis of video and still images at the subpixel level. The ink barely dried before both teams began working overtime to bring a new product to market on behalf of brands like Pepsi, Nestle and Circle K, all of which are slated to leverage the new power of the combined IP, taking existing photo behavior and joining it with components of traditional and social marketing.

"By licensing our IP to Pongr, we are broadening the reach of our technology for marketing and advertising applications in the user-generated content analysis space," said Sightec CEO Dr. Joseph Francos. "We believe Pongr is strategically positioned to provide brands, agencies and social networks with world-class, patented technology."

At the heart of the new offering lies the pairing of a sophisticated computer vision marketing platform from Pongr with military grade image enhancement and recognition technology from Sightec. When combined, Pongr can fine-tune the technology to make it work for brands and products, adapting the subpixel registration capabilities for wide-scale brand image detection and analysis. More information about Sightec can be found at online at www.sightec.com.

About Pongr
Based in Boston, Pongr is the leading photo marketing platform for the visual world. Through the use of patented image recognition technology, we unlock the value within consumer-shared photos and videos and transform it into actionable intelligence and instant social and mobile engagement opportunities. Companies of all sizes use our platform to power a variety of photo-based marketing activities including; direct-response programs, loyalty and social campaigns, multi-channel promotions and shopper marketing initiatives. Learn more at: http://corp.pongr.com

SOURCE Pongr