I have to admit I’m not much of a pinner. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m an impulse-buyer who’s better suited to Insta shopping, not someone who carefully pins and plans their purchases. Or maybe I’m just not a knitter, because I must say there seem to be a lot of crochet-your-own-sock patterns on Pinterest (and, yes, even though I don’t have either skill I do know knitting and crocheting are different!).
However, Pinterest is an excellent platform for promotional marketing. According to Omnicore, which pulled together the latest stats in January 2018, it has 175 million active monthly users, 100 million of them outside the US, with the majority of active pinners under 40.
Where Pinterest differs from most other social media channels is that 81% of users are women. Around 2 million Pinterest users save shopping pins to boards on a daily basis, 93% of active pinners say they use Pinterest to plan purchases and 87% of pinners have a purchased a product because of Pinterest.
That’s all good news for promoters and it’s a platform that can work well for influencer marketing. Pinterest influencers can be bloggers, often specialising in food or fashion, crafters, DIYers or designers, makers or vintage businesses who have built substantial followings. The numbers don’t necessarily rival those of the Instagram uber-influencers, but they can be in the millions.
Under the UK’s CAP Code Pinterest influencers should disclose in exactly the same way as influencers on Instagram, Twitter and any other platform. Brands and bloggers do use the ASA’s favoured #ad.
Affiliate links, where an influencer earns a commission if a consumer clicks through and buys a product, are not always apparent, but promoted pins, which boost visibility, are clearly marked. Pinterest influencer content can be standalone, but often links back to content on a blog or other platform which means that, from a user point of view, determining disclosures can be less than direct.
As I say, Pinterest can be a very effective platform for prize promotions and influencer marketing, particularly for lifestyle brands, and I think it’s an option that’s often overlooked, but if you’re considering running a Pinterest promotion you might be interested in a few figures I’ve pulled out from Prizeology’s recent research into how people perceive influencer marketing.
The results of our research showed that the UK public is firmly in favour of disclosure, with 88% of Facebook users and 86% of Instagram users believing that consumers should be informed if people are being paid to promote products, but for Pinterest users the figure goes up to 90%. Similarly, 85% of Pinterest users want to be told about sponsored marketing, whereas it is 77% for Facebook users and 78% for Instagram users.
Our research found that 67% of Pinterest users believe brands are not transparent about how they use influencer marketing, compared to 61% of Facebook users and 57% of Instagram users, while 71% of Pinterest users agree – and this is a real plus – brand perception is improved by transparency, compared to 61% of Facebook and 61% of Instagram users.
I can’t tell you why Pinterest users care more about transparency than anyone else, but I can tell you that when it comes to disclosure, pinners don’t want the wool pulled over their eyes…
You can download Prizeology’s ‘Under the Influence: UK Consumer Attitudes to Social Media Influencer Marketing’ research report here, and if you’re interested in running any kind of prize promotion on any platform, or want to ensure your influencer marketing complies with the CAP Code, do get in touch with Prizeology.
Sarah Burns is Prizeology’s Chief Prizeologist.
