Dive Brief:
- During a week where Digiday reported that Pinterest is set to offer a new video ad format, the social network revealed results from ad campaigns that used the platform’s Cinematic Pin option, which has a video looping element, according to Ad Week.
- Pinterest announced that cosmetics company L'Oréal ran a campaign last fall that included both Promoted Pins and Cinematic Pins. The company found the pins with a video loop increased purchase intent by over 37% and brand awareness more than 31%—a 6% and 10% lift, respectively, over the same metrics for Promoted Pins.
- The other campaign involved The Hershey Company's Reese's brand. Reese's used cinematic ads to promote chocolate recipes during football season and Promoted Pins to target sports fans, according to Ad Week. Pinterest found 25% of consumers who saw the cinematic ad had a higher likelihood of making a Reese's purchase within the next month, while the Promoted Pins increased positive sentiment for the assertion, "Reese's is fun to eat," by 11%.
Dive Insight:
Is Pinterest getting into video ads? Cinematic Pins may be the first step for the social network. A Digiday report from earlier this week said Pinterest is testing full video ads with a select group of users that autoplay when users stop scrolling over the ad. While Pinterest did not comment on the report, the implication that the network could be getting into video ads makes, given how popular the format has become on other platforms like Facebook and Snapchat.
The findings that looping video pins outperformed static promoted pins isn’t surprising, either. Facebook recently analyzed ads on its LiveRail platform and found that banner ads — a reasonable match to promoted pins — were not as valuable as video and native ads. In fact, the banner ads being served were so valueless that Facebook dropped demand-side buying for banner ads on its Atlas ad-serving platform.