Pinterest hosted its first global advertiser summit, Pinterest Presents, with sessions in the US, UK, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia, sharing its global vision to build a positive and inclusive platform.
The summit offered an exclusive look at Pinterest’s latest ad product updates designed to help advertisers better understand their impact and performance on the platform.
Scheduled to become available in Australia in Q2, Pinterest is expanding its suite of measurement tools with the introduction of Pinterest Trends and Conversion Insights. This allows advertisers to see promoted and organic metrics in a single report.
Another product update is Pinterest Premiere, a video ad solution that helps advertisers reach their audience at-scale by owning exclusive video placement. An Australian launch date is yet to be confirmed.
The virtual event was led by Pinterest CEO, Ben Silbermann and chief marketing officer, Andréa Mallard, alongside various local industry voices. In Australia, industry leader Megan Brownlow spoke about how self-actualised brands embrace conscious commerce and align with social good, while author, speaker, coach, and ironman athlete, Turia Pitt, discussed how she has overcome hardships and truly embraces inspiration.
More than 450 million people around the world engage with Pinterest every month to find inspiration. Brands play an important role with product-only searches on Pinterest growing by 20 times since the beginning of 2020.
The number of Pinterest users engaging with shopping surfaces on Pinterest increased by over 85% in the six months to October 2020 and more than three-quarters (75%) of Pinterest users discovered a new brand or product during 2020.
Interestingly, almost all top searches (97%) on Pinterest are non-branded (the search does not include a brand name) providing businesses with an equal opportunity to build awareness.
Over the past year, Gen-Z was a strong driver of Pinterest’s new user growth in Australia, planning their next purchase by creating boards like ‘Shopping’ or ‘Stuff to buy’. They are 35% more likely than the average Australian internet user to say that they tell their friends and family about new products.
Speaking to Retailbiz, Pinterest head of growth and shopping, Dan Lurie said the platform is a destination for inspiration and planning for the future with the ability to save, shop and find products.
“Online shopping is very transactional. It doesn’t provide the same experience as a physical store with the ability to browse and try-on items,” he said.
“We offer Pinterest users personalised recommendations based on objects they see in the real world, images they find on Pinterest or around the web. Currently available in the US and the UK, we have plans to expand Pinterest Lens to the Australian market later this year.”
“At the height of the pandemic, when people were adjusting to home life, we experienced a huge surge in usage and saw a record number of searches for ‘setting up home office’ and ‘new recipe ideas’. The core categories were consistent across the world – home décor, fashion, and beauty.
“People are living in the ‘now’ and are focused on inspirational experiences, looking to fresh and trendy content. In response to this trend, we launched Story Pins in September last year to give creators the opportunity to tell their story with videos and voiceover, as well as image and text overlay. For Pinterest users, this means ideas are more engaging and actionable.”
In May 2020, Pinterest launched a new app with Shopify to enable merchants to upload catalogues to Pinterest and turn their products into shoppable Product Pins. This partnership is currently exclusive to the US market, but Lurie said the platform is “constantly evaluating” what it does in other markets, hinting at a possible expansion to more markets.