How Luxury Fashion Brands Can Use Pinterest

Here at VERB, many of our luxury and premium clients have been asking about how they can use the social media platform, Pinterest, especially since we’ve seen the platform increase their ecommerce offering. For many of us we still only think of Pinterest as an image-inspiring, virtual moodboard, which is used to discover, save and curate picture/pin boards on the internet using images across the web, but there is much more to it than that; especially for marketers.

Without much noise around it, Pinterest’s audience has recently seen great growth, in 2020 their user base increase by 140 million. They now have 460 million monthly active users. This could be down to a number of reasons from people using the platform to curate their interior home projects (something that has increased through lockdown), recipe-finding for home-cooked meals in light of restaurant closures, to moodboard planning post-Covid weddings and events we’re longing to go to. Despite the impact Covid-19 may have had on the usership of the platform; we don’t see this trend decreasing when things return to “normal”. 

With my personal interest in Fashion, and VERB’s knowledge of how to market to the HNW and affluent consumers, I take a look at how luxury fashion brands can use Pinterest to take advantage of this growth on their platform.

Traffic driving e-commerce focus 

Pinterest gives consumers purchasing power, as all products are just a few clicks away from being purchased. And we’ve seen some luxury fashion brands use the platform almost as a second website, hosting their products, with the idea to sell, sell, sell. 

Many brands forget that Pinterest is a great traffic driving platform. The lifespan of one “pin” is much longer compared to that of a Facebook post as Pinterest’s functionality is to reshare, rather than like. Therefore the pin ‘lives longer’ as it is duplicated from one board to the next, giving the pin (aka the post and its link to your site/ product) a higher potential to reach a wide audience, and more opportunity for a sale. 

Tory Burch is a great example of a brand taking this approach: sharing product shots, their Pinterest page displayed like a virtual shop window (with price tags on display too). Burberry has taken a similar approach, but mixes product shots with their campaign imagery. 

A brand building, curation 

Pinterest has heavily invested in visual search which is why some luxury fashion brands are finding success on the platform. You can see the likes of Gucci and Ganni taking creative pinboards to the next level showcasing their brand story, their culture and their products through their inspirational boards. Some luxury brands are using Pinterest to curate inspiration boards to communicate the story and inspiration behind the fashion collection. They are not solely focussed on the sale but on brand awareness, story and creative direction instead. Above what Tory Burch is doing, this gives the user a more immersive brand experience on the platform. 

Image Search Technology 

In recent years Pinterest has developed their image identification technology; a feature which more people are using to find a product they’re looking for. A user uploads a picture of a product they like, or alternatively selects a part of an image they like, and the platform will serve you other pins that feature similar products. This works particularly well for fashion given its such a visual technology, but also as people tend to buy fashion based on its style, rather than practical qualities. 

Preserving brand on the platform

Some luxury fashion brands have activated accounts but are yet to establish themselves with content on the platform. One reason for this is that they are creating an “official” brand page so that there isn’t someone who can create a counterfeit brand account. With high profile luxury brands, we see many brand fan accounts being created, sometimes with content that isn’t aligned to the brand’s values. By reserving their profile, they’re avoiding “fake” accounts which could be seen as the real brand account. Both Balenciaga and Hermes, have seemingly gone down this route, but I suspect they could be re-launching their Pinterest with a bang. With Balenciaga’s audience of 31k, there is the chance they’re keeping their Pinterest community in suspense before they share their innovative and forward-thinking aestheitc on a “board”.

Advertising on Pinterest: Newer Ad formats

Pinterest has developed its e-commerce offering, bringing the platform more in line with e-commerce capabilities of the likes of  Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Slightly late to the party, Pinterest now enables brands to target consumers to a similar sophistication as Facebook, with first party data, as well as their own third party data integration. 

Pinterest have launched new ad formats for the platform. Where a sponsored “pin” was typically an image, there is now the ability to have “premiere video ads” as well as personalise ad messaging. It’s no surprise that with the rise of consumer shopping on social media 30% of consumers saying they’d make a purchase through Pinterest. 

These new ad formats are also increasing the results seen with Pinterest users being 2.6x more likely to make a purchase after viewing brand video content on the platform. Matches Fashion are a brand to be utilising this feature. It seems there is more consumer intent than you may have thought on Pinterest. Conversions aside, brands should also be looking to Pinterest as a middle-of-the-funnel consumer touch-point; a way to make the consumer think.

Pintrest’s Insights, Trends Tool 

More recently, in December, Pinterest also relaunched their insights platform, which facilitates improved audience research, and broader outreach presenting a range of new opportunities for brands and businesses. This new update enables one to get an overview of broader usage trends and shifts – like the fact that usage among Gen Z and male Pinners has increased 40% over the past year.The rising interest in these demographics underlines the broadening use of Pins, and could pique the interest of even more brands who may look to consider the app for their planning. This is a growing tool which should not be overlooked. 

Conclusion

With an 80% female user base, Pinterest is the appropriate place to target women who have an intent to buy. We’re seeing luxury fashion brands revisiting their Pinterest strategy to engage their female community, either through a paid or organic presence. With the increased sophistication in its analytical and insight tools plus improved advertising formats the platform offers luxury fashion brands more opportunity to reach their online audiences. Get in touch with VERB to discuss your Pinterest or social media strategy.