Sean Doyle, event marketing Lead, Europe at Pinterest discusses the social media site’s latest offering, a global online advertisers summit.
With more than 450m people around the world are now coming to Pinterest each month, the site has seen a growth of over 100m new users over the past year alone. The make-up of the site’s audience is diversifying, meaning the company has been working to find new ways for marketers to reach and inspire this new audience.
It was decided that producing a digital show would allow Pinterest to share its insights and news, in addition to reaching a much broader and global audience.
Doyle said: “Consumers’ expectations for brands have shifted dramatically over the last year and so we want to bring diverse and influential voices from both the industry and culture to give our attendees a glimpse into the future of advertising.”
When planning the event, Doyle said it was imperative to Pinterest that the event be engaging: “We knew we wanted to create a memorable event with story-telling at its heart, something to combat the ‘screen fatigue’ and really energise and inspire our audience. We banned the word ‘webinar’ from day one of planning.”
Pinterest Presents will be broadcast globally and will provide a tailored experience based on which country attendees are joining from. The UK’s iteration of the show will feature line-up of speakers including journalist and broadcaster Elizabeth Day and Karen Blackett OBE, UK country manager for WPP and CEO of Group M, who will share personal and professional stories of positive failure through the lens of inspiration. It will also see Steven Bartlett, founder of Social Chain, and Alex Loizou, founder of Trouva, discuss the changing landscape of digital advertising and retail.
Doyle explained that this tailoring was part of Pinterest’s aim to create a inclusive event: “With the support and expertise of Sinéad Burke, the founder of Tilting the Lens, and one of our event speakers, we’re delighted that Pinterest Presents is certified as a Diversity and Inclusion at Conferences and Events-recommended event with the maximum score of 100%.”
When deciding on a partner for the event, Doyle said that there were many factors to consider: “While we all know digital events have been taking place for years, the expectations on them in terms of attendee experience have changed dramatically over the course of the last year. Inspiring storytelling, logistics of global remote filming and creating a truly accessible digital experience were all top priorities for us.”
He continued: “We always had ambitious plans for Pinterest Presents, and because I come from an agency background myself, I knew it would be challenging for anyone to be able to provide an exact case study of a project the same as ours and honestly, we wanted to break the mould anyway. So, we ran a request for proposal process that considered capabilities but what was important for us was working with a partner that understood our audience and that shared our passion for creating something inspiring, inclusive and accessible.
“We’re so proud that this is our first truly accessible digital event. Capabilities in that area will continue to be a focus for us as we work with partners and platforms in the future.”
Pinterest Presents will mark the site’s first ever global advertisers summit. In order to engage with it’s intended audience ahead of the event, Pinterest released pre-recorded content for the event ahead of the event.
“The beauty of recording much of our content in advance is that we’ve been able to create a series of video clips, teasing but not quite revealing insights and announcements that will be shared on the day,” Doyle said. “We’ve been dropping these over the course of the two-weeks leading up to the event, to create a bit of excitement. We’ve had a positive response so far, and are ready to welcome tens of thousands of advertisers, agencies, creatives and marketers who are either already advertising on Pinterest or are interested in learning more about how they can uniquely reach audiences on the platform.”
With the rise in online and hybrid events, there are discussions as to whether events will continue to have digital elements post-Covid-19, or whether the events industry will pivot back to live events only. Doyle said that, at Pinterest, there is room for both kinds of events.
“It’s interesting, as a visual platform ourselves, you might think that it’s a natural shift for our events to go digital, but actually a big part of the Pinterest experience is about giving people the inspiration to actually get offline and experience things in their real lives,” Doyle explained. “I have to say, as a marketing team, we are all so passionate about experiential as a channel. So, I’d say there’s definitely room for both. We know the value of in-person experiences and the joy of meeting new people but there are also many benefits to online events too. Logistically, you can reach a global audience in one place, and can include inspirational speakers from all over the world, in different time zones, on one global stage. Personally, I can’t wait for our next real-world activation, but we’ve loved the challenge of creating Pinterest Presents and think it’ll be our best event yet.”
Pinterest Presents will be taking place digitally on 3 March.
