Unlock the creative power of Pinterest: festive season best practices

The holiday season is always a crucial period for many businesses, but this year, the stakes feel higher than ever. Every day, we’re inundated with talks of “soaring inflation”, “uncertainty” and the dreaded “R” word. With consumers tightening purse strings and competition for their attention intensifying, every advertising dollar is scrutinised and marketers are under pressure to do more with less. 

Here’s the good news: on Pinterest, brands can gain consumer trust and help make this year’s holiday season better than the last. And thanks to a number of new ad formats, it’s never been easier to build creative campaigns that cut through—and drive results.

Holiday campaigns hit differently on Pinterest 

The way people use Pinterest is inherently different from other social platforms, and this creates a unique opportunity for brands. More than 7.4 million Aussies come to Pinterest¹ every month to find inspiration to create a life they love. They’re looking toward the future, and it's this planning mindset that gives us valuable insight into current and emerging trends. This holiday season, for example, we know people in Australia are looking to level-up their holiday fashion (searches for "holiday party outfit" +40% YoY), create special cocktails for their end-of-year celebrations ("christmas mimosa" +70% YoY)² and find the perfect pressies for their loved ones (“romantic gifts" +90% YoY)³.

But they’re not just dreamers—they’re doers. More than 80% of users say Pinterest helps them plan for the future and take action⁴. So what does this mean for advertisers? 

Brands are a welcome source of festive inspiration

Since many people use Pinterest with the intention to shop and find products they love⁵, ads aren’t an interruption—they’re a welcome addition. Brands have the opportunity to show up in a relevant context to provide solutions to consumers when they’re open-minded and looking for inspiration. There’s no better time to be present than during the ever-important holiday season, when 1 in 2 monthly Pinterest users discover new brands and products⁶ and 79% say they will spend more this holiday season than last⁷.

Use a variety of ad formats to unlock holiday campaign success

They say variety is the spice of life, but it’s also one of the key factors in driving results on Pinterest. There are a host of ad formats available when building campaigns. We recommend diversifying your formats and tailoring your message to suit your objective. The proof is in the (plum) pudding: A Pinterest conversion lift meta analysis revealed campaigns that used two or more ad formats are 5x more likely to see incremental sales⁸, and in Australia, a local analysis showed campaigns that have three ad formats drive 3x higher brand awareness than those that use just one⁹. 

At our recent global advertising summit, Pinterest Presents, we unveiled a range of new high-impact, interactive ad formats. That means this year, there are even more ways for your brand to get creative and take people from inspiration to action. 

Here are four new ways get creative and get noticed 

1. Inspire at scale with Premiere Spotlight. Spotlight is a new, premium video placement that allows advertisers to drive mass awareness by exclusively occupying the top spot on the Pinterest app’s home feed and search page for an entire day. It’s a perfect format for extending your brand campaigns, launching new products or aligning to moments. Giorgio Armani, for example, took over the Premiere Spotlight placements to launch their new refillable fragrance. The visually stunning videos grabbed the attention of users, achieving a +118% higher video completion rate vs regular awareness formats (max-width video) and a 40% more efficient eCPM than the target.¹⁰

2. Tell a story through rich Showcase ads. Showcase ads weave a narrative, allowing users to seamlessly explore a range of products, offers or ideas.  Combine a hero video or static asset with multiple supporting cards, plus clickable features to direct users to your site. Recently, Country Road captivated users with a Showcase ad promoting their spring fashion range. Lifestyle imagery provided outfit inspiration while tagged products made it easy for users to browse their favourite pieces, resulting in a 5x higher engagement rate versus the retail benchmark for standard Pins.¹¹

3. Drive deeper engagement with Quiz ads. Another new interactive format, Quiz ads allow brands to deliver a personalised dose of inspiration to users in a fun and engaging way. Start with an eye-catching visual, then ask users a few simple questions before providing a customised recommendation based on a their answers. Leggo’s, for instance, dished out solutions to people seeking romantic dinner ideas with a 'date night' recipe quiz. The content resonated with users, achieving a 72% completion rate and a CTR 90% higher than the industry average.¹¹

4. Provide on-trend gift ideas with the Holiday Gift Badge. Convert Pinterest user insights into action with a unique co-marketing package that can be added on to qualifying holiday campaigns. Badges featuring Pinterest branding are available for the top 10 most-searched gift recipients, allowing you to transform seasonal product-led content into inspiring gift ideas. For added impact, use trends.pinterest.com to find out what products are at the top of people’s wish lists and feature relevant items in your creative.