App pays consumers for selfies—and data

Every brand seems to be cashing in on the selfie craze. A mobile app reaps information for companies seeking data on customers. ‘A lot of glistening shoulders right out of the shower.’

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Say you run a test kitchen for a fast-food franchise and you’re trying to figure out your customer base: who they are, what they’re eating, where they grab a bite on the run.

You will only get so far pushing online polls or distributing survey cards in take-out bags. Pay your customers to take a selfie, however, and you might be surprised at how much information you can gather.

“The level of detail we can get from a picture is so much greater than a survey,” says Alexander Blair, owner of Freshii 1871 in Chicago. Blair also runs the Canadian fast food firm’s test kitchen in the Windy City.

As brands go crazy pushing selfie campaigns, a new app called Pay Your Selfie allows consumers to earn from 10 cents to $1 apiece taking photo assignments that, coincidentally, also provide companies with marketing data.

When the value of the selfies reaches $20, Pay Your Selfie cuts a check for the customer. Alternatively, they can donate the cash to charity.

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