Why Pinterest Turned to Immersive Theatre to ‘Unboring’ Its Advertiser Conference
Flipping the script on traditional B2B conferences, Pinterest recently disrupted expectations with its annual advertiser summit – Pinvision.
Through a captivating theatrical journey guiding advertisers through Pinterest’s inner workings, the experiential tour spotlighted how advertisers and brands can engage with the platform’s users and shoppers via its performance tools.
Taking inspiration from the immersive theatre worlds of ‘Punchdrunk’ and ‘Sleep No More’, with live actor performances and interactive demos, the event showcased how Pinterest offers a different inspirational experience for brands and users to connect, plan and shop.
As marketers and their agencies moved through the experience in London, they were immersed in the world of Pinterest, taken on a journey through conceptual rooms, and even visited a gift shop.
Guests were guided through to the Discovery Den, featuring a life-sized Pinterest board diving deeper into the platform’s audience and the world of gen z. In a game show-style set-up, guests also had the opportunity to learn about the power of Pinterest’s algorithm for discovery and taste refinement.
In The Board Room, guests learnt more about Pinterest’s suite of performance products, all brought to life through brand success stories. They were even treated to a rap performance.
Moving into The Mind, interactive demonstrations presented how Pinterest gives inspiration to its users with positivity at the core, as brands are able to maximise conversion visibility.
Culminating at The Pin Emporium - Pinterest’s very own colourful gift shop - guests were allowed to take away their own customised goodies, showing how the platform drives conversation amongst its engaged gen z audience.
Brands like Sweaty Betty are turning to Pinterest to leverage its advertising solutions and drive performance. Activewear trend data revealed related products that customers are searching for, along with what type of exercise they are most interested in. Through conversion insights, Sweaty Betty could see how its product categories perform on Pinterest, and then move customers from inspiration to action through dynamic retargeting.
The event also drove home the reality that each month, over half a billion people around the world come to Pinterest to make inspired purchasing decisions for their everyday life. It’s where they get inspiration, find new dreams, plan and shop for the moments that matter most. Because the platform is grounded in the future, Pinterest gets an earlier indication of where consumers are headed and can help brands predict what is to come.
Having been guided through the experience, LBB’s Alex Reeves spoke to Laura Gaffney, director of business marketing, EMEA and APAC at Pinterest.
Above: The Discovery Den
LBB> What was the first thought that led to Pinvision?
Laura> The beginning point was our strategy for the year. It's a new era. In our business marketing team, one of our principles is let's unboring B2B [business-to-business] marketing. And that's across everything that we do. We start off with that - how do we make this different? How do we turn the typical B2B approach on its head a little bit, and try to inspire marketers, like brands or agencies, in a way that we typically would inspire our ‘Pinners’ on the consumer side. So you've hit it on the head. That's exactly the approach that we're trying to take.
That led us to look at lots of different options. And we landed on this one, where it was about, rather than a typical B2B conference (we invite you in, tell you everything you need to know and then network), how do we bring you into an intimate, interactive experience where you're inspired? What we wanted to do is show you how Pinterest works, how our products work, who the people are on our platform, and who the growing population is on our platform. That's what we wanted to get across.
LBB> That's your broad strategy, then there must have been some creative decisions on how to do that. Where did you go next?
Laura> We had a Pinboard. Once we'd landed on the concept that we wanted to make this more of an interactive show, it was how do we want to make people feel? We wanted to make people feel relaxed, we wanted to make them feel invited into the space, and we wanted it to feel like a Pinterest board, so sometimes we brought that to life on the screen, but sometimes just around the idea that you could see these collections of products that are suited to your interests. That's how we wanted to feel.
We also wanted to bring in some of our business products – the idea of the spotlight shining on people as they went through it. Then we talked about our ‘Premier Spotlight’ ads. So it was just connecting that so people went away remembering those key elements.
Above: Audience participation in The Board Room
LBB> The audience for Pinvision is marketers at brands and their agencies. Were there any experiences that you drew on or had done before within Pinterest that inspired this?
Laura> On the consumer side, we do experiential activations quite frequently. We were at Coachella, and we had Possibility Place in London last year where it was very much about bringing Pinners into the space. Also, last year in the US, we did a campaign called 'Unboring Your Boardroom'. That was before I worked at Pinterest and I was hugely inspired by that. So, we've taken inspiration from all of those things. It's more about how we make people feel. How do we make them remember through that feeling? I think that that's really important.
Above: A rap performance in The Board Room
LBB> Going through it I felt that. What weaves together all of the products that you're showcasing is that positive feeling that Pinterest gives users.
Laura> It's positive and suited to their personal journey. It's not like your typical social media platform. It's not about you sharing what you're doing with everybody else. It's more about coming here looking for inspiration, and how can we make that tailored to you - allowing you to leave the platform inspired to do something; whether that's you taking action on the platform or going away and doing something. That's what we want people to feel like.
LBB> Were there any specific points that you wanted to stress they’re underappreciated by some brands?
Laura> Yes. I think there's two main things. One is we really want to make sure that people understand the audience and our platform. We've been talking for a while now about gen z being the fastest-growing demographic of the audience. But actually, when we released our earnings, we revealed that they're actually the largest demographic on the platform as well, which is incredible. 40% of our Pinners are gen z. We want people to understand, we're ageing down as a platform as opposed to ageing up, which some of the other platforms might be. So that's really important for brands and clients.
The other part is around our product suite for marketers. Typically, in the past, people would have seen Pinterest as an upper-funnel solution, whereas now it's very much full funnel and our lower-funnel products are driving incredible results. So we wanted to get that across.
Above: The Mind
LBB> Are there any other parts of your marketing around this that are important to contextually situate this within?
Laura> The overarching objective around Pinvision is making sure people understand there's never been a better time to invest in Pinterest, and that we're a full-funnel platform that drives performance. All of our marketing for this year is centred around that theme and concept. We've got multiple things happening across the year. We have a big partnership with Campaign launching pretty soon, which is great; we’re getting the message out there. We also have a lot of other content with our sales teams reiterating that same message. We're going to be at Cannes in June, which will be brilliant. Can't wait for that.
There's other moments throughout the year in H2, other client events, we'll have what we call our Pinvision Leadership Forum for a subset of the clients – more of an executive engagement later in the year.
Above: The Pin Emporium
LBB> In terms of brand categories that might not think Pinterest is for them but actually can make really good use of it, what are the perceptions you’re challenging?
Laura> I think the old perception was that it's for middle-aged or younger women who were planning their weddings. That was how people looked at it, whereas now we want to make sure that people understand that it's not just that. I think that comes through us talking about the demographic that is growing. Gen z is really shaping interests, the future and the shopping journey. So sharing how shopping is increasing on the platform is really important. And then when it comes to categories, I would say retail is a huge priority and travel is also one of the most important - also entertainment. The tech sector is huge as well. We need to tell those stories in a broader way, make sure we're getting those stories out there a lot more, and share what difference that's making to their marketing plans and what return they're getting from it.
The objective of what we're trying to do is reinforce the point that there's never been a better time to invest. And I would also say that what we're trying to do is have a similar approach in terms of from a creative point of view, treating our brands and our marketers in a similar way to how we treat our Pinners.
