Pinterest’s Unique Take on Video Ads: Cinematic Pins

Charlie Scholz - June 25, 2015

The success of video advertising on YouTube, Facebook and other platforms has not gone unnoticed by Pinterest. The popular pinning platform, that is home to 72.8 million monthly active users (as of March 2015), has announced their first paid video solution, “Cinematic Pins”. The platform released “Promoted Pins” in 2014, but until now, there were no video pin options.

There is one standout feature that really makes Pinterest’s video pins different from other social media video advertising solutions, video pins “auto-play”, but only at the speed you scroll through your pin feed.

This feature stemmed from the feedback of social media users who have experienced auto-play videos on other platforms like Facebook. Tim Kendall, Pinterest’s General Manager of Monetization, offered some insight into that decision:

“We have tested this extensively with users. What we heard was, auto-play ads are interruptive, and this is so much better because it keeps me in control. We didn’t even bother testing auto-play.”

With this announcement, Pinterest also announced that they would be releasing new features to their promoted pin advertising platform. Advertisers should expect to see new audience targeting that allows you to target specific users based on stages of life, personas or interests. New cost-per-action pricing models will be available as well. Advertisers can elect to only pay when users re-pin, click or enlarge a promoted pin. You can even configure it so you only pay when a user downloads an app.

Marketers and Advertisers should rejoice, as the platform was previously very limited with interactive advertising possibilities. While brands like Gap, Walgreens and Wendy’s were the first to utilized cinematic pins, other advertisers should expect to see these features rolled out later this summer.

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2015/05/19/pinterest-video-ads/

https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/new-promoted-pin-options-help-you-reach-your-goals