Shake a cocktail? Easy. Shake a reputation? Harder. But that’s just what Malibu set out to do with their summer 2023 campaign. Known for the distinctive coconut taste of their Original flavor, Malibu wanted to share the message that piña coladas are just the beginning.

Malibu has been using Pinterest to reach their audience since 2017. From decor to drinks, people turn to Pinterest to plan all sorts of moments. So with a new lineup of fruity flavors coming out, Malibu knew Pinterest would be a good fit to showcase ways to add the drinks to upcoming celebrations.

Ultimately, the team wanted to drive stronger in-store sales, especially among people who hadn’t bought Malibu before. 

Immersive ads add hype  

Malibu made recipes the cornerstone of their always-on summer campaign, taking advantage of the Lookbook Pin Extension to drive higher engagement. Using the microsite abilities of a Pin Extension, Malibu built a visual landing page where people could dive deeper into their full portfolio of Original and flavored varieties, including their new peach flavor and a line of ready-to-drink cocktails.

The ads showed that Malibu’s products are a year-round treat, great to add to a wide range of occasions. To reach the right people, the team used a keyword strategy rooted in summer moments, party planning and easy cocktail recipes. In addition to using Pinterest’s native targeting tools, Malibu also used a retargeting strategy to reach people who had previously visited their website, engaged with their ads or purchased the brand.

Through Malibu’s offline sales lift study, they observed a 2.5% lift in incremental sales.¹ Of those incremental sales, the majority came from new brand buyers (84%).¹ On top of that, they also saw increased sales with previous brand buyers.¹

Among their ads, creative with product shots and recipes front and center drove the strongest results, contributing a full 90% of the incremental sales.¹

Tips for your next campaign

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

1. Get creative with your creative. Use a mix of formats and content types to help people explore your brand in different ways.

2. Reach can help drive strong incremental sales. Consider using the awareness objective, paired with broad targeting strategies to help maximize your reach.  

3. Make sure your measurement reflects your goals. You can work with an approved Pinterest Business Partner to design custom offline sales studies, including solutions to see incremental lift.