• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, May 21, 2014

Apu Gupta, founder and CEO of Curalate, which provides analytics for visual social networks like Pinterest and Instagram, isn’t a big fan of brands culture-hijacking to gain currency. He says it typically comes off as forced and Millennial see right through it. So much for the brand news room! Speaking on the same panel at OMMA Mobile, Eleni Tavantzis, senior manager of digital + social Communications at Lilly Pulitzer, agreed, saying the apparel retailer doesn’t try to hope on hot stories or memes for more visibility, sticking to its own branding instead. But Gupta suggested there’s room for inviting UGC on visual platforms.