Pinterest has launched a new ad campaign that frames the platform as the anti-social media app and encourages people to go live their lives instead of spending too much time on noisy social media streams.
The campaign highlights how people used to engage with the world before social media, saying “The best thing you can find online is a reason to go offline.”
It’s an effective slogan, and Pinterest is hoping that the campaign will frame it as a key platform for discovery of offline projects. Which seems counterintuitive, but the campaign is really taking aim at non-Pinterest apps, which seek to keep users scrolling for as long as possible, and that’s not Pinterest’s key use case.
Indeed, over the past few years, Pinterest has worked to distance itself from its social media roots, framing itself instead as a “discovery platform,” where users can come to find relevant products for offline activities.
And while Pinterest does generate the vast majority of its income from ad exposure, and thus benefits from people spending more time in the app, it’s seeking to drive differentiation in its use case and fit. That’s why the company is selling ad partners on the relevance of its matches and the value of Pins as a discovery element.
In this sense, it works for Pinterest to align itself with users who view social media as an addictive time sink.
Indeed, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready has publicly called for teenage social media bans in order to limit the impact of overexposure and over usage.
This is not altruistic though, because Pinterest derives benefit from other social platforms seeing less usage. Instead, Pinterest, again, is trying to frame itself as the good guy, and as the only platform that believes in real connection, while at the same time using the exact same elements other apps use in order to drive usage and interest.
It could work. The new ad campaign will definitely hold appeal with older audiences who view social media as a negative. In addition, the endorsement of social media bans by a social platform CEO will strengthen calls to implement restrictions that will hurt other social apps far more than his.
Pinterest said the new campaign will run from May 1st across TV, cinema, out-of-home and digital channels.
