The Challenge

In 2017, Pinterest was looking to better understand the unique dynamics, needs, and motivations of their diverse advertiser audience to build better tools and services for their partners. A new research study would explore in greater detail how these needs drive their prospects and clients to choose a specific media brand, and in turn, illuminate and address the gaps in advertiser comprehension of their own media product.

The Solution

The Advertiser Perceptions and Pinterest research project team developed a study to help them understand advertisers and their media decisions more broadly. What do advertisers need? Where is their pain? What are their buying habits? Can we identify their emotional triggers? How can they best be segmented and communicated to in a highly effective, customized manner?

The Process

The ultimate goal was to have a workable segmentation tool activated within the organization. Advertiser Perceptions provided Pinterest with distinct observations, depth, and clarity regarding how advertisers are seeking to solve their most pressing problems, and how they view Pinterest as an advertising solution compared to those needs.

Dozens of segmentation models were run and the results were then finalized. Several executive-level presentations were produced with specific sales, marketing and product recommendations. A new analysis of findings was also presented to more than 500 Pinterest staffers on the partner side of the business. In addition, Advertiser Perceptions assisted with several deep dive standalone sessions and strategic workshops with product teams.

Actions Taken

  • The research provided a lot of fuel to ongoing projects having to do with audience insights and analytics. Advertiser barriers were identified and solutions, including the streamlining of creative and audience development processes, were developed.
  • Pinterest created a company-wide internal curriculum to enable staff to have a real understanding of the power of their platform.
  • The Pinterest sales team had the tailored insights to pursue a new advertiser profile and was able to drive revenue quickly.
  • As a follow up, Pinterest has engaged Advertiser Perceptions to undertake a very large global tracking study of small and medium advertisers.

The Results

Advertiser Perceptions took these proprietary segmentation insights and presented specific advice on how to use the information to direct strategy. In addition, they contrasted the findings to overall market activity and trends based on their continual monitoring of the advertising industry.

The research was successful in breaking the illusion that ad spend is the defining characteristic of any advertiser. The findings determined categorically that meeting advertising objectives was far more important to identifying the best prospects. Learning the difference was an eye-opening experience for the entire Pinterest team. Pinterest indicated that these findings were the most important catalysts to come from the research and inspired a change in direction. In some cases, it also became validation to the stories the Pinterest sales team was hearing in the field.