Pinterest launches AI ad format it plans to showcase at Cannes

Pinterest is launching an experimental program for brands to combine the platform’s penchant for personalization with AI-powered advertising technology. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Dubbed Pinterest Ad Labs, the program will allow brands to generate backgrounds for products that are based on users’ shopping preferences, as well as leverage Pinterest’s Collages feature—which uses AI to cut out images and compile them into a mood board—as an ad format. Pinterest also announced updates to its performance marketing offerings and brand safety efforts. The rollouts, which are open to a select group of early testers including Nike and Wayfair, arrive as social media companies hasten to package new capabilities of AI into solutions for advertisers. Meta continues to focus on generative tools, most recently launching automation for images and headlines. TikTok’s efforts, on the other hand, appear most useful in terms of improving optimization. Pinterest is planning to highlight the updates at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity next week, Chief Revenue Officer Bill Watkins told Ad Age. The platform’s larger strategy for the festival is to show clients how it is leveraging AI to help improve user experience and campaign results. In Ad Labs, brands can experiment with making their product Pins more engaging by replacing the standard white background with something more relevant to the user. Pinterest’s proprietary text-to-image model analyzes the content posted to users’ Boards, then takes those signals to develop backgrounds that fit their tastes, Watkins said. Background generation has emerged as a primary duty for generative AI technologies used in advertising settings. In WPP’s Open platform, for example, the holding company has developed surrounding environments in ads for auto brands. AI’s inability to create realistic logos and packaging, however, has much to do with its relegation to background design, WPP’s chief technology officer previously told Ad Age. Brands are also getting their first crack at Collages, a feature Pinterest launched last fall. Collages hinge on AI image editing technology to allow users to cut out products from Pins and add them to a kind-of personalized mood board. Brands will now be able to create their own Collages and promote them as interactive ad formats, such as Showcase and Collection ads. The products in the Collages will be shoppable to streamline the discovery and purchase for users. Collageshas proven to be particularly popular amongst Gen Z users, who account for nearly 70% of the form’s creators, CEO Bill Ready said during last quarter’s earnings call. Pinterest has seen a recent surge in interest from this younger demographic, and the platform’s highly shoppable content has attracted big-name brands including Walmart and PacSun. “[I]mproving the actionability of pins is another core tenet of improving user satisfaction, deepening engagement and growing [monthly active users],” Ready said during April’s earnings call. Outside of Ad Labs, Pinterest announced Performance+, a suite of tools that are intended to automate the process of creating campaigns while increasing performance. The platform is also partnering with software company DoubleVerify to provide marketers better ability to measure the brand safety of their Pinterest campaigns. Previous testing with Integral Ad Science found that 99% of measured ad impressions on the platform were deemed brand-safe—a quality that has only become more elusive thanks to the propagation of AI-generated content on social media platforms. Cannes Lions coverage See all of the Grand Prix winners here Top 5 Grand Prix campaigns

Pinterest launches AI ad format it plans to showcase at Cannes

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