Visual listening, an English term, refers to the monitoring and listening activity conducted on social media using image recognition technologies. Alongside traditional monitoring, visual listening allows for the identification of specific visual content that could be used, with consent, in a brand’s communication strategy. The importance of visual listening is growing with the rise of image-based posts on online platforms. Thanks to image and logo recognition, it becomes possible to detect references to a brand even when it is not explicitly mentioned in the text or hashtags.

This practice can be used to analyze consumer behavior toward a product or brand, or to evaluate the impact of a sponsorship campaign on social media. Sometimes translated into French as “écoute visuelle,” visual listening proves to be a valuable tool for understanding emerging trends and online audience reactions.

A concrete example of visual listening in action involves a pizza chain using it to study consumer habits in Europe. One platform briefly presents a visual listening feature, while another provider explains the underlying technological principles of this practice, illustrated by concrete examples from sports sponsorship and consumer insight detection.