DFS is one of the UK's leading furniture retailers, bringing comfort, colour, and joy into peoples' homes. A brand predominantly built on their in-store experiences but have been blossoming into a major digital leader in their market for the last few years. With a marketing objective to raise awareness and extend the reach to audiences online  — DFS turned to Pinterest to scale their brand campaign, "What's Your Thing?".

From here, #MyDFSThing was born — immersing home enthusiasts in the heart and essence of the DFS brand campaign by creating an interactive creative outlet around DFS products. An outlet that sat at the core of Pinterest users’ behaviour while they were in planning mode and making home decisions. It was a true collaboration between DFS, Pinterest's creative strategy and product team, their creative agency Pablo and media agency EssenceMediaCom.

Integrating the joy of Shuffles

Pinterest Shuffles was a perfect solution for this campaign. It’s a standalone app designed for creating, publishing and sharing visual content, such as animated, immersive collages, using both user-generated pictures and images from Pinterest's vast library.​

Adding Shuffles helped set the foundation to build a platform-first marketing campaign, enabling DFS to reach target customers in fun, creative, and innovative ways. Pinterest shoppers created collages and mood boards using the retailers' wide range of products.

Every #MyDFSThing Shuffle published featured a DFS product cut-out and automatically posted back onto Pinterest as a 'shoppable' Shuffle — generating tons of organic awareness, consideration and purchase opportunities. 

To create an extra incentive for collage-creation joy, DFS also ran a competition to "win your thing" from the #MyDFSThing Shuffle, dialling up the campaign's visibility, shareability and buzz factor.

Using a Pinterest power line-up

When people are styling up their homes, planning a renovation or seasonal update, they often turn to Pinterest for inspiration.

To effectively tap into consumer interests, DFS used a variety of Pinterest advertising formats, products, and tools. This strategic approach enabled them to connect with Pinterest's high-intent audience, brimming with planners and shoppers.

For reach, they utilised the power of Premiere Spotlight for homepage and search landing page takeovers. They worked with home décor creators to help amplify their message further with hyper-targeted audiences. And they used the likes of standard videos and Idea Pins to make their ads ‘pop’ in peoples’ Pinterest feeds.

From a targeting perspective, they focused on specific keywords and search interests like "home décor", "sofas", and "bedrooms". This approach ensured their ads would show up during important moments of discovery — when home décor enthusiasts were actively exploring interior ideas and planning their next big purchase.

DFS experienced an overwhelming response. With thousands of Shuffles for #MyDFSThing, it exceeded campaign benchmarks and goals nearly threefold. It garnered millions of views and saw an uptick in outbound clicks, showing that it effectively took shoppers from inspiration to action.

By leveraging Pinterest's capabilities, DFS brought their "What's Your Thing" mantra to life. They reached their target audience at an impressive scale — exemplifying the brand's ability to connect with consumers in a compelling, memorable, and creative way.

Tips for your next campaign

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

1. Think creatively about the possibilities on Pinterest. Did you know Pinterest now has Shuffles capabilities in-app with our feature Collages? Inspire your audience with Pinterest’s wide variety of advertising products — helping you generate organic awareness, consideration and purchase opportunities.

2. Put your ads centre stage with Premiere Spotlight. Adding Premiere Spotlight to your marketing mix enables you to maximise reach, visibility, and awareness at scale with homepage and search landing page takeovers. Note: book your slots early — only a single brand can own the Spotlight placement for a given day, so secure your dates as soon as possible.

3. Consider a strategic partnership with a Pinterest content creator. Reach hyper-targeted audiences and dial-up creativity for your next campaign by partnering with a Pinterest content creator. Plus, make sure to utilise Pinterest’s ‘find your influence’ team — they can help take your campaign from brief to activation within just a few weeks.