Whether you work in adland or not, ads are a part of everyday life. In fact, while there are no official figures, many marketing experts believe we see between 5,000 to 10,000 ads per day.
That’s a lot of advertisements – and many of which we might not even realise are ads.
The question becomes: how can brands stand out in a sea of advertisements? And how can they make sure consumers are receptive to those ads? While there’s no exact science to standing out, there is data to prove that people are most receptive to ads when they are in a positive headspace.
And, in a year that can only be described as one of the worst in living memory, where your brand’s ad shows up is more important than ever. The truth is ads only stand out where they fit in. And that’s what makes Pinterest the advertising force that it is. On Pinterest, the interests of both Pinners and advertisers are incredibly in-sync – people come to Pinterest to find new stuff, and brands are selling the stuff. People expect to see ads on Pinterest. It’s what some would call a match made in adland heaven.
However, ads placed in a negative space can actually drain brand spend. In fact, recent research from Pinterest shows that while anger and divisiveness may get people to scroll, it doesn’t actually translate into purchasing. Nearly half of Australian adults are more likely to both feel more positively towards and remember the brands they encounter online when they’re feeling more positive and inspired.
Furthermore, 60 percent of respondents reported some parts of the Internet feeling dark and scary, and the majority said they assumed a brand or ad appearing alongside harmful content recognised or endorsed being adjacent to such content. Essentially, a negative environment makes people less likely to remember an ad, less likely to trust, and less likely to buy from a brand. Put simply: it pays to be positive.
A positive environment, especially a positive internet environment, doesn’t just happen, it needs to be cultivated. Pinterest has deliberately created a place where positivity is at the heart of everything it does, and it’s certainly paying off for both brands and consumers alike. In fact, when designing content for Pinterest, the platform actually suggests falling back on the Five Dimensions of Inspiration to communicate to Pinners with integrity – and positive content is the number one tip. This is followed by content that is relevant, actionable, original and visually appealing.
Suncorp’s first interest campaign aims for inspiration
Positivity is exactly what Suncorp wanted to focus on with its first-ever Pinterest campaign, timed to coincide with its major sponsorship of home renovation show The Block.
The campaign was aimed at helping people find ideas on the renovation style most suited to their needs based around a ‘quiz to board’ extension, an immersive experience and five-question quiz that will direct consumers to personally curated boards featuring design inspirations for bringing their home renovation journey to life.
Speaking to B&T about the campaign, Suncorp said: “We partnered with Pinterest early in the piece as we were preparing for our third year sponsoring The Block. We knew that Pinterest was a destination for users interested in home renovations and DIY – and these were the exact people we wanted to reach.
“The most compelling part of using Pinterest was the targeting and the customer mindset. We were able to reach customers actively signalling their intent to renovate or buy a new home. It is a highly inspirational platform, and customers are engaged in a very positive way, in addition to that, there is also a lot of trust between users and brands on Pinterest – all of these factors contributed to the partnership.”
Suncorp said while the campaign is still running, it’s already seeing some “really strong results”.
“For brands within financial services, life-stage targeting is always desirable, and Pinterest’s ability to ring fence customers at those key moments (eg, planning a wedding, planning for a new baby) has made the creative opportunity really compelling. “
Interestingly, Suncorp never saw itself as an entity that could use Pinterest because in its own words, it wasn’t “a brand with a strong visual identity that would be at home on a visual search engine like Pinterest.”
However, that all changed with Sunscorp’s partnership with The Block. “It’s given us the credibility to play in the home inspiration or renovation space. As a brand we’ve really leaned into the shift that we’re seeing play out in Australia, the desire for customers to nest and focus on the home – so being more visual in this area will facilitate more activity on these platforms.
“Also, Pinterest is a very positive place, the lack of any political influence in the content or opinion sharing has meant that it has a distinctively different feel to other platforms. It’s made for a nice change of pace for us as a brand and customers alike.”
Pinterest’s positive space inspires CHE Proximity’s creative work
A positive and creative space isn’t just good for brands, it’s good for their creative agencies, too. CHE Proximity handles financial service Latitude’s creative, and CHEP group account director Thomas Penn said Pinterest is “a natural fit” for Latitude’s Buy Now, Pay Later product LatitudePay.
Penn said: “We are always looking for opportunities to reach our audience in highly relevant media environments, and in that respect Pinterest was a natural fit for this project.
“We know that our audience uses Pinterest for inspiration to inform their next purchase, and the platform allows us to remind them of the benefits of LatitudePay during that research process.”
Penn also said CHEP taps into Pinterest’s ability to target users based on a number of interest areas and browsing behaviours,
“When it comes to our creative strategy for Latitude, we developed a suite of highly relevant creative executions associated with those behaviours. Over time we optimise according to performance, and will allow those performance metrics to inform ongoing creative refinement.”
Pinterest is a source of inspiration for Modibodi
Period underwear brand Modibodi has also found Pinterest’s positive and inspirational space to be beneficial to its creative campaign.
Modibodi told B&T: “We see Pinterest as a source for pure inspiration and visual browsing, away from the distractions of friend updates, news and opinions that you have through other social media platforms. This is where the opportunity for Modibodi exists on the platform – to inspire a new way to think about period and leak management, challenging the habits and “norms” of just using a disposable product like pads or tampons.
“Of course we always aim to engage and educate shoppers as well as visually inspire too with our range of styles and colours and with the people we feature in our creative: real customers with diverse bodies, stories and backgrounds.
Modibodi said Pinterest’s inherent positivity has been a ray of sunshine amid the global pandemic, as well as allowing Modibodi to be more accessible by all.
“Throughout 2020 we’ve all experienced huge changes in how we live and work, how we access essential items and how we shop. As the Modibodi business has scaled, so too have our interactions with our customers through different platforms like Pinterest and we’ve seen great success by being more accessible.
“Throughout this time, people have turned to Pinterest to find positive messages, stories and inspirational content to keep entertained, and that’s why we use Pinterest.”
If you want to learn how it pays to be positive, and what that actually means for your brand so you can stop interrupting and start inspiring, download Pinterest’s report now.
