VISUALi: Creative Component Analysis using Computer Vision

Github: https://github.com/glombardo/VISUALi

The Problem

Every day, brands spend millions on digital advertising, producing thousands of creative variations across campaigns. But here's the challenge: how do you know which visual elements actually drive performance? Is it the color scheme? The complexity? The style? Most marketing teams rely on gut feelings and A/B tests that barely scratch the surface of what's possible. That's why I built VISUALi, a tool that applies computer vision and machine learning to unlock insights hidden in your creative assets.

Marketing teams are drowning in creative data. A typical campaign might have hundreds of variations across different platforms, audiences, and formats. Traditional analytics tell you which ads performed well, but not why. Was it the bold red CTA button? The minimalist design? The lifestyle photography? Without understanding these visual patterns, teams end up making expensive creative decisions based on incomplete information. Even worse, they miss opportunities to scale winning visual strategies across their entire creative portfolio.

The Solution

VISUALi transforms raw creative assets into quantifiable insights using state-of-the-art computer vision. By leveraging pre-trained deep learning models like VGG16 and ResNet50, the platform extracts high-dimensional visual features from every image. These features capture everything from color patterns and textures to complex compositional elements that human reviewers might miss.

How It Works

The magic happens through a sophisticated ML pipeline. First, each creative is processed through a convolutional neural network to extract visual features. Then, using dimensionality reduction techniques like UMAP, these high-dimensional features are mapped into a 2D space where similar creatives cluster together. This isn't just pretty visualization, it's actionable intelligence. Marketing teams can instantly see which visual styles dominate their portfolio, identify gaps in their creative strategy, and discover unexpected patterns in high-performing ads.

Technical Innovation

What sets this tool apart is its production-ready architecture. Built with Streamlit for rapid deployment, it handles datasets with millions of images through intelligent batching and caching strategies. The modular design means data scientists can easily extend the platform with custom feature extractors or metrics. Whether you're analyzing 100 creatives for a small campaign or 100,000 for enterprise-scale operations, the platform scales seamlessly.

Looking Forward

VISUALi represents a paradigm shift in how we approach creative strategy. By bridging the gap between creative intuition and data science, it empowers teams to make decisions backed by quantitative insights rather than opinions. As we continue to enhance the platform with features like automated creative generation and real-time performance prediction, one thing is clear: the future of advertising is visual intelligence at scale.