Dive Brief:

• Pinterest expanded its vertical strategy team with two new hires per Ad Age. John Gray, previously director of platforms and partnerships at Ford agency GTB, will head the social media platform’s automotive and entertainment vertical strategy, and Arthur Sevilla, who recently left Mondelez as its global director of e-commerce and strategy, will become its first CPG vertical lead.
• The vertical strategy team is dedicated to generating revenue in six business verticals: CPG, retail, travel, financial services, automotive and entertainment.
• "The knock on media companies, in particular, technology companies, is we show up and we're so excited about our tech that all we talk about is our technology. As [Pinterest] is maturing as a business, we want to talk about solutions and how we can drive business for our clients," Brian Monahan, Pinterest’s head of vertical strategy, told Ad Age.

Dive Insight:

The social media platform has been looking to increase revenue and has been quietly reworking its entire approach. Late last month it dropped the Like button while keeping the Save button after internal research found its users better understood the platform without it. The news was also reportedly part of push from Pinterest to no longer be considered a social media network like Facebook or Instagram.

Adding proven talent to its vertical strategy team indicates how seriously it is taking a revenue-centric approach, and the chosen verticals reflect user interest. For example, more than 202 million automotive pins were saved to around 30 million boards in 2016 representing a 77% year-over-year increase along with the more than 25 automotive brands currently advertising on the platform.

Part of reasoning behind hiring Gray and Sevilla, given their respective backgrounds, was to help Pinterest’s team speak the language of its potential brand partners per Monahan.