Pinterest has got its Memorial Day-through-Labor Day playbook planned for brands.
The search-and-save social site has been selling brands on $100,000 summer specials. A few Pinterest pitch decks, recently sent to agencies and advertisers, show the pricing and strategy it offers. (Click on the image at left to see the decks.) Pinterest is selling ads for Memorial Day, July Fourth, wedding planning, and home design.
"People are designing their lives for all moments on Pinterest, and brands have an opportunity to inspire and connect with people on the platform at those times," a Pinterest spokesman said in an email statement. "We work closely with our partners to leverage our insights and trend information to reach people when they are planning for a holiday or a big life event. We don't have additional comment on the materials."
Pinterest's ad business has had stops and starts over the years as it has looked for the right formula for attracting advertisers. It hasn't always been clear on its core value in marketing, part search and part social, but not quite Google or Facebook.
Still, advertisers are tempted by its unique ability to understand what people are shopping for and where they want to travel, and the pitch decks show it emphasizing that message.
"Their ability to understand what people want," said one agency executive, who is familiar with the pitch decks and spoke on condition of anonymity. "The ability to predict where people are in the consumer journey, and place ads that connect with them in that moment. That is what will make them most valuable to advertisers."
Advertisers are starting to see that Pinterest is moving into a more innovative position, too. It recently launched a visual search product, that will eventually turn into a visual search ad, where people point a camera at an object and see similar items in the search results. Google clearly see potential in a product like Pineterst's Lens. Just this week, Google revealed similar capabilities built into cameras on Android phones.
"A camera that helps me find similar things I'm thinking about buying?" the agency exec said. "That makes a ton of sense. If the value of the platform is in how people use it to plan for life, then the platform should evolve accordingly."
These pitch decks are just a small window into how it positions itself for advertisers, and how popular certain categories are compared to others.
Memorial Day
All of these ad packages start between $75,000 and $100,000,
offering brands a presence when people search the platform. The
trick is to get the right keywords and target the right people.
Sometimes Pinterest has insights that might not be immediately obvious. For instance, people interested in history are the perfect target for a Memorial Day campaign. And people interested in "nails" could be more receptive to an advertiser offering holiday decoration and cooking tips.
Fourth of July
Most of the searching for Independence Day occurs in the month
leading up to it, according to Pinterest's stats. In 2016, 3
million people searched for Fourth of July content, Pinterest
said.
"Home decor brands can light the way by sharing fun and easy solutions to illuminate exteriors in the form of string lights and DIY lanterns," Pinterest says. "Food and drink brands can show users how to get the most from their menu with unique recipes like Korean BBQ skewers, patriotic dipped pretzels and red, white and blue layered punch."
Home décor
Home design, furniture, projects and decorating are natural
categories on Pinterest, where there are 119 million pins related
to the topics. So, what kind of insights has it gleaned? Removable
wallpaper and vertical bar carts are popular among renters.
Campaigns in the home category costs less than the other ones, with a 37¢ cost per click and a click-through rate on the ads of 0.46%.
Weddings
This category is a killer on Pinterest with 3 billion
wedding-related pins on the platform compared with Memorial Day's
15 million. A pin is any piece of content users have saved to their
Pinterest pages. Weddings are clearly a popular area for pinning,
whether it's for planning outfits, parties or honeymoons.
Pinterest said that 26 million people searched for wedding content last year. It also detected a trend in "mini-moons" and "printed dresses."