Pinterest groups: advertising, design and innovation

July 20, 2013

Human are inverterate collectors. Objects, ideas, and now digital images on social networks. But with the digital world at your fingertips, how do you choose where to store it and what to collect?

Famous faces, inked bodies, cute kittens, playful puppies, pithy sayings and gorgeous landscapes. All are proving massively popular. The categorisation is entirely individual.

What topics hold your interest?

• automotive exotica
• clever advertising
• pioneering women
• industrial design
• household health
• monochrome photography

There are collections of images of these (and a vast multitude of other topics), on the social image-sharing platform Pinterest.

Unlike Instagram, where a high number of images are produced by users on their tablets and camera phones, Pinterest allows users to upload, add from a website or simply ‘repin’ what they find on other users special interest ‘boards’.

Pinterest is also another opportunity for brands to engage with their clients and customers, and to establish their philosophy in the marketplace. Yet to date, remarkably few are engaging in a two-way dialogue of allowing their customers to contribute images. Most remain limited to the old philosophy of ‘broadcasting’ content; albeit encouraging their customers to share; rather than engaging in a mutual conversation.

Publishers are in an ideal position to capitalise on their extensive visual assets. Examples include The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Seventeen Magazine. City councils can benefit from spreading the word of their services and attractions, as do: The City of Edinburgh Council, City of Melbourne and Visit Las Vegas.

In the hospitality sector, the Kempinski Hotel & Residences Palm Jumeirah showcases a spectacular location, the Hilton has a HHonors profile for its loyalty program, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has a profile for all its properties and Four Seasons offers individual profiles for each, including Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui and Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris.

Brands are represented in a wide variety of sectors. Airlines: British Airways, Air France and QANTAS; skincare products: Clinique UK, Nivea UK,  Shiseido and Shu Uemura; footwear: Manolo Blahnik, Nike Women and Timberland; retailers: Harrods, Myer MyStore and Bergdorf Goodman and automotive brands: Ferrari Store, Toyota USA and Lexus Design Award.

While there are vast opportunities for brands to engage via Pinterest, some still have gone no further than securing the name, e.g. Woolworths and Westpac. It is possible of course, that these profiles were not created by the brands at all, but opportunism by individuals anticipating a commercial sale.

Despite the wide variety of social platforms available, brands need to develop an integrated, wholistic and consistent strategy to their use of social media for both external and internal stakeholders. Engaging with staff and loyal customer advocates is a powerful means to increasing brand recognition and reputation.

Digital Tsunami counsels clients on eStrategy to deliver a consistent tone of voice when engaging with the marketplace. Call us today to discuss.

 

Sources: Pinterest.com

Air France
American Express
Bergdorf Goodman
British Airways
City of Edinburgh Council
City of Melbourne
Clinique UK
Dyson Technology
Ferrari Store
Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui
Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris
Harrods
HHonors
IBM Center for Applied Insights
Kempinski Hotel & Residences Palm Jumeirah
Lexus Design Award
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Manolo Blahnik
Myer MyStore
Nike Women
Nivea UK
QANTAS
Seventeen Magazine
Shiseido
Shu Uemura
The Chicago Tribune
The New York Times
Timberland
Toyota USA
Visit Las Vegas