Dive Brief:

• Pinterest has appointed Westbrook, a media company founded by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, as its exclusive creative partner to offer marketers branded content services during the 2023 Halloween and holiday seasons, per details shared with Marketing Dive. 
• Fueled by growing marketer demand for vertical video ads, the seasonal tie-up offers advertisers a custom content package inclusive of four co-branded videos featuring popular creators and one video on Pinterest Premiere Spotlight, the social platform’s new ad solution.
• The offering is supported by research indicating that 97% of the top searches on Pinterest are unbranded, allowing brands an open window to be discovered. The move is the latest by the platform to grow its revenue and stay relevant against competitors like TikTok.

Dive Insight:

Pinterest is doubling down on its vertical video ad bets, a move supported by increasing demand from marketers to capitalize on the format due mostly to the success of TikTok, which continues to rank as Gen Z’s most-favored social platform. Video has similarly been a point of potential for Pinterest lately, with such content having increased 40% in the latest quarter.

Through its partnership with Westbrook, Pinterest is hoping to remove the hassle for brands of creating video ads during critical holiday periods. Over the week of Halloween and during winter holidays, marketers can utilize the seasonal takeover packages to reach consumers across various parts of the platform as they scroll through popular holiday categories, like Halloween costumes, home decor or recipes. 

Along with four co-branded, creator-occupied videos, brands using the package will receive one video on Pinterest Premiere Spotlight, the platform’s new video ad solution, unveiled earlier this year, that gives advertisers premium placement on the app’s search page for 24 hours. The efforts will be handled by Westbrook’s branded partnerships division, Westbrook Media. 

Westbrook is the latest to join Pinterest’s growing list of original programming partners, with others including Tastemade, Dotdash Meredith and Condé Nast Entertainment. Aside from its partnership with Pinterest, the celebrity-founded media company has collaborated with Samsung, Meta and Logitech. Westbrook was also central to the creation of Peacock series “Bel-Air,” a reimagining of popular 90s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” 

The push by Pinterest to bring additional incentive to advertisers tracks with other recent efforts by the platform as it strategizes long-term revenue growth. In the latest quarter, the company reported a 5% year-over-year revenue boost, though it fell short of expectations in Q4. Other recent moves include a multi-year ads partnership with Amazon and a budding data clean rooms partnership with LiveRamp.

While the broader revenue outlook for Pinterest has been a bit shaky, users over the last year have steadily increased, which could prove powerful in attracting ad buys. The company recently topped 463 million users, with 13 million having joined over the latest quarter.