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Many Pinterest users are avid planners, and Christmas is one of the biggest occasions on the calendar to organise. With numerous gifts to buy as well as celebrations and family activities to pack in, appetite for inspiration and festive ideas starts as early as the summer months with some pinners updating their boards all year round.
For brands, too, Christmas is crucial. The Q4 golden quarter is when they can make a large proportion of their sales and profits.
With brands and consumers agreed on the importance of the festive period, Pinterest can be a platform that performs for both parties.
Ready to shop
No longer an inspiration-only channel, Pinterest has improved its shoppability to offer full-funnel effectiveness, with new products and capabilities to create seamless shopping experiences and ways for advertisers to monetise their activity.
It’s never too early to plan for Christmas, and for advertisers it makes a lot of sense to prepare sooner rather than later, especially this year when the double header of the Olympics and Euros over the summer will factor in marketing plans.
Jasdeep Mondae, head of demand generation at Performics, says that brands are planning for two peaks. “It’s like two Christmases. Do you hold budget for Christmas and have a smaller peak in summer? It’s quite complex this year,” she says.
Pinners are planners
With consumer spending peaking, Christmas is the season when advertisers need to get their message and their media planning right. Competition is intense for consumer attention, so how do brands stand out?
As the cost-of-living crisis eases somewhat, consumers may once again prioritise big-ticket items. With these typically involving a longer consumer journey to purchase, it is important to lay the groundwork before Q4, says Matt Whitehead, director of agencies, EMEA.
“We see Christmas activity search trends starting in late July. Pinners are planners and the mindset is forward-looking to gifts, food and hosting parties, which plays out in search.”
By understanding the audience earlier in the year and connecting with them at a less frenetic, and less expensive time, brands can capitalise nearer Christmas when purchases are more likely to be made.
Tools such as the Pinterest Predicts trends report can help brands prepare social activity for the months ahead. And the Pinterest Trends tool allows brands to keep an eye on what’s trending in real time.
Luke Smith, head of paid social, Performics @ Spark Foundry says: “People come to Pinterest to be inspired, whether that’s to plan what presents to buy or what to have for their Christmas lunch. These moments can be seen within Pinterest Predicts and brands can now own these moments by sponsoring a Predicts trend.”
This helps brands target users in the moments they are most receptive, providing an effective and efficient way to communicate with an audience.
“Combining search with Premiere Spotlight enables brands to scale messaging to a wider audience,” he adds.
Sow the seeds early
Getting the fundamentals of media campaigns in place early, such as shopping feeds and product group structures, will also pay off in Q4 performance.
Deolu King, partner, social practice, Kinesso, says: “Brands want to capitalise on the action at Christmas but a lot of the consideration is done earlier. You need to think about what seeds to plant during the summer of sport for example.”
Pinterest research shows that its users, and GenZ in particular, love Christmas, and are more engaged on the platform than on other social media.
Weekly users rank Pinterest as the most helpful platform for planning their 2024 Winter holidays and, on average, users spent 63% more on the festive season last year compared to those on other social platforms.1
Post-Christmas push
But Pinterest isn’t just for Christmas. Savvy brands should look to the so-called Q5 period after Christmas to mop up additional sales.
Consumer behaviour has changed to an extent where January is an important sales period in its own right – either because of sales, or purchases withheld in the hope of gaining a keener price.
Allocating budget to take advantage of the post-Christmas period can be a smart move. There is less competition and media is cheaper. Consumers are also in a more relaxed frame of mind so can be more receptive.
In recent years, a lot of focus has been on pre-Christmas pushes such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but with digital, the store never closes, and with creative Pinterest messaging, the opportunity to connect has never been better.
Christmas in numbers
• 90% of Pinterest users say the platform helps them make more decisions during the festive season than other sites/apps1
• Pinners are 76% more likely to say that Pinterest helps them identify the perfect product to purchase1
• There’s a celebration planned every 3 seconds on Pinterest2
• 52% of pinners say they are actually more likely to buy an item or product they’ve saved on Pinterest1
• Pinterest users are 80% more likely to feel happier with their purchase when they have used Pinterest to purchase an item1
Pinterest tools for your Christmas prep
1. Premiere Spotlight – allows advertisers to use max-width video to showcase products or seasonal moments with exclusive placements on the Pinterest home feed and search page.
2. Shopping Ads – display details like pricing and availability in the ad
3. Mobile Deep Links – take shoppers directly to a product page and can have three times the conversion rate
4. Direct Links – streamlines the customer journey with a single click from Pinterest to a website
5. API for Conversions – improves retargeting in campaigns and can be reviewed in conversion reporting for improved conversion visibility
For more, go to the Pinterest Predicts report and catch the special Campaign podcast, in partnership with Pinterest: “It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas!”
Sources
1 GlobalWebIndex, UK, Festive Season Shopping Research, March 2024, study commissioned by Pinterest, Monthly Pinterest User, comparison vs. Non-Pinner
2 Pinterest internal data. Global searches in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. Aug 1 2022-Jul 31st 2023