Holiday shopping is a latte work. People on Pinterest know this better than anyone as they search for inspiration for holiday gifts. 

Tim Hortons came to Pinterest with a complex challenge. Canada’s favourite coffee wanted to make an impact during the noisy holiday period and deliver results focusing on the upper and middle funnel, all while sharing three very distinct brand initiatives. It was an ambitious goal but anything is possible with a Double Double™ in hand.

Deck the feed with swag and Timbits

During the holiday season, it can be hard for advertisers to cut through the noise. Tim Hortons came to Pinterest because they knew that the platform is, for many people, an integral part of their holiday planning. 61% of people on Pinterest associate the platform with gift giving over other platforms.² 

The brand’s holiday campaign had three distinct initiatives: raising awareness for their KindNest brand campaign; showcasing limited-time holiday food and beverage products; and promoting Tim Hortons merch as the perfect holiday gift. To give these initiatives a connected throughline, Tim Hortons designed a singular visual language, centered around Video ads. This united visual identity leveraged a mix of Pinterest’s Video ad formats — designed to most effectively engage audiences at various parts of the funnel. They paired messages from their three initiatives with the best suited ad format like Max width videos to drive awareness and Idea ads to drive consideration. 

Armed with strategically designed creative, the brand launched their holiday campaign with a multi-objective strategy, targeting their audience at different times in their customer journey with the most impactful ad format.    

Brew-tiful results among coffee lovers

The multi-objective approach delivered. The campaign saw strong awareness results with people at the top of the funnel, measuring a +4.8 point life in campaign awareness.² Consideration for merch and holiday offerings landed with people in the middle of the funnel, driving a +3.5 point lift in action intent with 25-34 year olds. And the brand was even able to drive a +5.2 point lift in action intent among their existing customers — a meaningful result from people who already identify as Tim Hortons loyalists. 

The multi-objective approach helped Tim Hortons deliver strong results for each of their three holiday initiatives. The brand is now working with Pinterest on ways to reach new generations of Canadian coffee lovers, designing campaigns to target Gen Z. 

Tips for your next campaign

Try these Pinterest best practices to get more out of your ads:

1. Take your creative to the next level: Innovate with different ad formats on Pinterest. Explore the many ways your brand can show up on the platform to capture your audience's attention.

2. People on Pinterest are planning for holidays: From recipe inspo to holiday shopping people use Pinterest for their holiday planning. Build your holiday campaigns with that in mind.

3. Achieve optimal engagement by using various video lengths. Adapt the length of your videos on the platform to drive engagement. The recommended length on Pinterest is 6-15 seconds.