Dive Brief:

• L'Oréal USA is expanding its activation of Pinterest with a new campaign that leverages the platform's content creators, per an announcement emailed to Marketing Dive. The tie-up begins this week and will run through mid-September.
• Over 20 Pinterest creators will develop branded content for seven of L'Oréal's personal care subsidiaries using the platform's short-form video feature Idea Pins. The content will cover beauty tutorials and trends for consumers who are looking to return to social activity amid the ebb of the pandemic.
• The campaign is L'Oréal's latest foray into the digital space, and sees the company expanding its efforts in content marketing for its consumer-facing brands.

Dive Insight:

L'Oréal is hoping to craft memorable consumer experiences using content creators on a platform that is becoming increasingly important to the digital shopping space. Pinterest's Idea Pins allow creators to publish interactive, short-form videos with which users can closely engage, a feature that also has potential for brands looking to engage some of the site's 475 million Pinners. L'Oréal's new campaign seeks to do this by tapping a diverse group of more than 20 creators to develop tutorials and discuss beauty trends pertaining to products from its brands Maybelline New York, Cerave, Redken, L'Oréal Paris, Lancôme, YSL Beauty and Urban Decay.

By leveraging creators to promote these brands, L'Oréal can be seen as including its consumer-facing portfolio in its content marketing efforts. Last month, L'Oréal took its first crack at content marketing with an online video series tailored specifically to hairdressers who buy the company's professional products. The new campaign is wider-reaching, featuring brands from its classic consumer and luxury consumer divisions. These efforts are consistent with a recent Advertiser Perceptions survey that found that marketers are focusing more of their digital ad budgets on branded content and influencer marketing.

The new campaign arrives as Pinterest is reporting an uptick in beauty searches on its platform, with queries like "soft makeup" and "white eyeliner" reaching record highs, per the announcement. L'Oréal is also experiencing a surge in interest in its products, particularly from countries in which vaccination programs have made substantial progress, according to remarks made by L'Oréal's CEO to CNBC. This growth comes after L'Oréal's yearly sales fell 4.1% in 2020 due to the economic fallout from the pandemic.

L'Oréal has been active in the digital space since the pandemic precluded in-person shopping. In April 2020, the company debuted its first augmented reality (AR) lenses on Snap's desktop app, allowing fans to virtually wear its products. A few months later, the company released its first line of virtual makeup, which was available on a wider swath of social media platforms.

The tie-up between L'Oréal and Pinterest is not the first for the two companies. L'Oréal has previously utilized immersive content experiences offered by Ceros, an experiential content creation platform that became a Pinterest Creative Partner last year. These activations have taken the form of 'fragrance finders," through which consumers can determine their spray of choice. Earlier this year, Pinterest also announced it would be debuting its AR Try on tool exclusively with eyeshadow from L'Oréal brands. Through AR technology, the feature allows consumers to try on beauty products using their iPhone or Android.

As Pinterest looks to continue last year's growth in the online shopping space, it is partnering with a variety of new brands to test its ad offerings. In March, the platform teamed with Anthropologie to design the brand's first digital-only catalog. Last week, it partnered with Volkswagen to offer a virtual test-drive for the automaker's electric vehicle. And earlier this month, Pinterest launched Shopping List, another feature that, as with Idea Pins, caters to both consumers and advertisers.