Louis Vuitton outsources Father's Day push via Pinterest
French fashion house Louis Vuitton is encouraging its Twitter followers to pin their favorite Father?s Day gift items as a way to outsource advertising to promote products.
By engaging its audience, Louis Vuitton is allowing consumers to advertise products through Pinterest as other pinners search the homepage for gift ideas. The response in turn spreads the awareness of those products by reaching more people.
?I'm a big believer in user-generated content,? said Jay Hawkinson, senior vice president of emerging products for SIM Partners, Chicago. ?It's become a symbiotic relationship between brands and customers; brands want the exposure from their fans and fans love getting the recognition from brands.?
Mr. Hawkinson is not affiliated with Louis Vuitton, but agreed to comment as an industry expert.
Louis Vuitton did not respond by press deadline.
Reposting a success
Louis Vuitton?s tactic leverages Pinterest effectively by sharing its products on a recurring basis. If a follower of Louis Vuitton participates, her friends will see the product, which increases the chances of a sale and also encourages brand awareness.
The brand encouraged participants on its Twitter account @LouisVuitton_US by providing a link to the pinboard and recommended using #FathersDay and #LoveWithLV.
The Love with Louis Vuitton pinboard contains gift ideas for all occasions. Its Father?s Day gifts are shoes, cardholders, watches, tie clips, ties and wallets.
Each pinned product will redirect the user to the product page on the Louis Vuitton Web site.
Pinning to win
Pinterest is useful for photo-centered promotions and for continuously reminding consumers of products through the process of pinning and repinning.
Lifestyle brand Anthropologie hosted a Pinterest contest to promote the discovery of new trends among home and decorating platforms for the summer by incorporating style insight from its fans.
Naming it a #PinToWin challenge, contestants were asked to pin inspiring ideas for all types of summer gatherings. Winners received $500 toward Anthropologie dining and entertaining products (see story).
With Pinterest already a source of referral traffic, Kraftrecipes.com, one of the first brands to take advantage of promoted pins, used Pinterest as a way to reach its customers with the right content at the right time.
With the launch of paid promoted pins, which debuted with a handful of big brands such as General Mills, Nestlé, Expedia.com and Gap attached, Pinterest is taking its potential as a marketing platform to the next level. The visual storytelling capabilities offered on Pinterest are appealing to these brands as they continue to invest more heavily in digital marketing yet are still trying to find the strategies that help create deeper consumer connections (see story).
?Our society has created an obsession over everything visual, so Pinterest has an advantage since all advertising and promotions are based off visuals, contributing to their popularity,? Mr. Hawkinson said.
?Pinterest is an excellent curating tool and a significant method for sharing products because people by nature like to collect things. At Pinterest, users can collect and share the things they like. By building additional followers the ripple effect will increase.?
Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon, editorial assistant for Mobile Marketer, New York