The Power of Pinterest

Kraft Foods observed virtual pinboard Pinterest for months before finally diving in with a "Kraft Recipes" branded page in January. Walgreens says it's in a test-and-learn phase with the content-sharing website, focusing primarily on the beauty and photo categories.While marketers are proceeding with caution with Pinterest, the reason for going forward is clear: From May 2011 to May 2012, Pinterest grew by more than 4,000% (including unique visitors and clicks on search engines) according to comScore's "State of the U.S. Internet in Q1 2012" report. As of April, Pinterest – operated by Palo Alto, Calif.-based Cold Brew Labs and launched in 2009 – had more than 20 million users, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.Its popularity is fueled by its ease of use and its visual nature. "It's no secret, in watching Facebook and Twitter evolve, that the image is king," says Zach West, Walgreens social strategist. "Social content that is image-based gets a lot more engagement."Women find the site particularly appealing. Earlier this year, creative agency Modea reported that 68% of Pinterest users were female, 50% had children and 28% had a household income of more than $100,000. The American Marketing Association since reported that the number of male visitors to the site is on the rise.Kraft's Pinterest strategy is to pin seasonally relevant recipes every week, enable consumers to pin recipes seamlessly ("pin it" buttons were added to Kraftrecipes.com in February), and monitor pins and re-pins "so that we constantly improve our ability to give consumers the recipes they want, when they want them," says Jennifer Feeley, associate director, CRM digital activation. "The recipes and Kraft products are inextricably linked, ultimately leading to product sales."From Sales to 'ROR'One in five Pinterest users are buying items they have pinned, according to a survey conducted in March by Vancouver, British Columbia-based Vision Critical and Emily Carr University, Vancouver. Of the 500 people surveyed, 12% pinned something that they later purchased online and 16% pinned something they later bought offline.ComScore reports that Pinterest users rank second only to LinkedIn in terms of buying power. And all of those people pinning away spend more money, more often and on more items than users from the other top social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumblr.But attributing the social network's activity directly to retail sales is difficult, says Abby Penich, experiential and social media marketing manager at ConAgra Foods. The company's ReadySetEat and Ro-Tel websites have seen increased traffic from Pinterest, even before ConAgra added "pin it" buttons and launched a branded presence on the social network earlier this year.The increased traffic to the branded sites has resulted in more recipe views and more browsers printing recipes, so one would expect that it's driving purchase volume and frequency. "Anecdotal feedback from consumers has indicated that they would purchase Ro-Tel more often if they were aware of more recipes to use it in," Penich says, "and showcasing Ro-Tel recipes on Pinterest exemplifies one way that the brand is delivering on that."Kimberly-Clark is early in its involvement with Pinterest, says Meg Way Edgin, director, digital strategy and planning. "Our brands are just deciding how to engage our targets in a relevant way in that space." But, the site "has huge potential to deliver sales," she adds. "Pinterest has made it easy to link to a retailer for purchase, allowing for a quicker path to purchase and sales in an inspiring environment."One negative for marketers is that Pinterest users often aren't easily able to make a purchase of something they see. A Bizrate Insights study of several social image-sharing sites (among them Pinterest) from Los Angeles-based Shopzilla found that 16% of users had issues finding pertinent brand or retailer information about the items they wanted to buy when clicking on an image.For Karl Meinhardt, vice president, social and digital marketing at Albertsons, it's not just about making a sale. He suggests that the correct way to measure Pinterest efforts is ROR (return on relationship), not ROI. "You gravitate toward people you find interesting and who tell great stories," he says, cautioning brands and retailers to not think of Pinterest as a weekly ad. The retailer joined the social network in April and as of mid-June had 18 boards, including "foodie love," "avocado advocate" and "perfect pantry." Each of these visual "storylines" aims to elicit emotions from users and in turn tie those emotions to the retailer, rather than emphasize "buy this."Albertsons has built connections using more than food. To coincide with Mother's Day, it held its first Pinterest contest, "Timeless Women We Love." Entrants created their own pinboards, included #TimelessWomen hashtags and shared the boards through the retailer's Facebook page. Grand prize was a $100 gift card and flowers from Just Add Ice Orchids. Select photos were re-pinned to the Albertsons Market Pinterest page and featured through Facebook and Twitter.John Andrews, co-founder and CEO of Collective Bias, says that as brands and retailers delve deeper into Pinterest, they should manage the site as they would any other media plan. "You have a product focus, a promotional focus," he says. "The only difference is the people producing the content are not media agencies; the users are the producers."Callan Green, senior social media specialist at Sony Electronics, says Pinterest gives Sony an opportunity to interact with its existing fan base. The company can answer product questions and see what products users are excited about.Room for Growth and ImprovementGreen says that what Sony likes best about Pinterest, when compared to other social media outlets, is that it is less saturated with other brands, for now.In addition to its relative newness, Pinterest hasn't appeared as brand-friendly as other social networks. "We don't classify it with the major platforms just yet when it comes to letting brands get involved," says Walgreens' West. "The big guys are brand-friendly by design; Pinterest hasn't gotten there yet." Most of the retailer's social media efforts are focused on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.Scale is the main issue. While Pinterest has a large user base, it doesn't have the tools such as targeted ads and analytical functions to help brands and retailers reach large groups. "It can be difficult to find like-minded people since you can't search users by their bio or by their interest," Green says. Additionally, some consumers could be excluded since creating an account is only accessible by invitation, and copyright concerns remain a challenge.Another concern, says ConAgra's Penich: "Brands have the option to link their Pinterest profile with their Twitter account but not a Facebook brand page, inhibiting strong integration across a brand's social media embassies."The content itself may be a hurdle for some as the site requires delivering brand messages visually. Brands and retailers that don't already have this type of content may be at a disadvantage. Penich says ConAgra is now placing an even greater emphasis on compelling recipe imagery.Pinterest clearly makes Kraft brands' content more visible and shareable, Feeley says, but the company is still seeking a deeper understanding of consumer behavior and the impact of Kraft content on the site. To that end, Kraft is currently part of a pilot with Philadelphia-based Curalate, a Pinterest measurement platform. "The Web-based measurement tool helps us evaluate the virality of our curated pins," Feeley says, "as well as the organic pins from our loyal customer community."

The Power of Pinterest

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