We first learned about Pinterest’s plans for promoted pins in September 2013. A month later, Pinterest announced it would be testing the advertising format with an undisclosed group of advertisers. Now, Pinterest is taking the test into the next phase with a group of leading brands that will try promoted pins advertising for search and category feeds.
These brands include:
- ABC Family
- Banana Republic
- Expedia.com
- Gap
- General Mills
- Kraft
- lululemon athletica
- Nestle – Purina, Dreyer’s/Edy’s Ice Cream, Nespresso
- Old Navy
- Target
- Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
- Ziploc
In October, Search Engine Watch covered the promoted pins debut, saying the advertisements may not be transparent enough. With heightened interest on native advertising from the FTC, those ads could be walking a fine line.
Fast-forward to today, and the message remains the same from Pinterest: The promoted pins will be “tasteful, transparent, relevant, and improved based on Pinner feedback,” the social platform promised.
Judging from the latest image from Pinterest, it doesn’t look like there have been any modifications to the look and feel of promoted pins since their first test run. But the platform did highlight the advertising placed on mobile devices.
Advertisers in the promoted pins test group were no doubt carefully selected based on Pinterest’s target audience. Data coming from eMarketer estimates that 85 percent of the multimillion user base is women on mobile devices. From Advertising Age:
Pinterest doesn’t report on how many users it has, though it does say that 75 percent of usage occurs on mobile (factoring in just its native apps and not the mobile Web.) EMarketer puts its user base of people who use the service at least on a monthly basis at 40.1 million in the U.S. for 2014 and estimates that 85 percent of those users are female.
Advertising on Pinterest from brands like Kraft will be recipe-focused, Advertising Age reported. “Kraft will be running promoted pins – mostly recipes – in four categories: dessert plays that incorporate products like Jell-O and Cool Whip; Kraft cheese brands; Philadelphia Cream Cheese; and content from KraftRecipes.com.” These test campaigns will be three to six months in length.
Pinterest is encouraging businesses to sign up to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in promoted pins.