As social networks try to monetize their traffic, most are looking for ways to play an influential role in a purchase.
In the last couple years new purchase platforms have emerged. Facebook created the ability to purchase from brand pages (affectionately called f-com) and some brands created pages to test and learn. Twitter recently hired its first head of commerce and now enables shopping via tweets. Yet neither of these networks have the purchase power of Pinterest.
Studies have shown that Pinterest not only has a large and engaged audience (now third largest social network audience), but it leads all social networks in average spent per user. Based on Pinterest's emergence as a commerce platform (p-com anyone?!), it will be interesting to see how retailers deepen their usage of Pinterest.
A great place to watch this evolution will be the upcoming holiday selling season.
This early work from Target shows how the retailer is integrating Pinterest into its holiday campaign. According to Target CMO Jeff Jones, this is the most digitally enabled campaign in their history. While Facebook and Twitter will play roles, Pinterest is serving as the hub for the "My Kind of Holiday" campaign. Why Pinterest? Even with a small push last year, Target was the most shared brand in December. So they are pushing the integration even further this holiday season.
For Shopper Marketers, Pinterest is a very interesting platform. With pre-shopping trip activities becoming a huge part of the purchase journey, Pinterest provides access to an audience engaged with seeking, searching and sharing. Even more importantly, it also providing a direct bridge to shopping.
We at Theory House expect to see even more retailers and brands integrate Pinterest in their marketing communication moving forward.
