While flipping through the various circulars (ads) that come with the Sunday paper, we came upon an attention getter from Target which showed sale items in the context of what you could bake. The theme, of course, was the upcoming Easter holiday.
Target Ad – Sunday
Right smack in the middle of the page, the words “dessert pinspiration” appeared along with the Pinterest logo.
For those who don’t know, the company Pinterest describes itself as “a tool for discovering things you love, and doing those things in real life. Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra co-founded our site in March 2010. Since then, we’ve helped millions of people pick up new hobbies, find their style and plan life’s important projects.”
And according to Wikipedia:
Pinterest is a visual discovery tool that people use to collect ideas for their different projects and interests. People create and share collections (called “boards”) of visual bookmarks (called “Pins”) that they use to do things like plan trips and projects, organize events or save articles and recipes.
The way we see it, Pinterest can be like a focal point for inspiration.
Per Webster
A lot of times you’ll flip through an ad quickly observing that Toll House chocolate chips on sale (maybe even remembering the price), but not really thinking beyond unless you happen to have a cooking project where one of the ingredients are chocolate chips.
Snapshot of Pinterest page.
With Target including what you could make as the focus of the ad, and then showing the relevant ingredients which JUST so happen to be on sale, they may actually get the reader to be spurred into action –like digging out a recipe or going to Pinterest and looking at other options for using the on sale chips.
That’s pretty awesome!
Before Mouseover
Note: For an added bonus, when you view the weekly ad online and mouse over the item (like the chocolate chips) the pricing shows.
After Mouseover
Now we don’t know which came first, Target talking to Pinterest or Pinterest pitching this idea as a way to promote both brands.
For sure, the teaming up of the two companies is brilliant and can lead to its own mash-up word:
PinTargesting (Pinterest + Target [AKA Tar-jay] + interesting).
What we are hoping is that other brands take this sort of approach — showing their products in the context of what’s possible.
Plus, we really like anything that inspires someone to create something — be it a batch of cookies or a new layout for their office (check out this Fast Company article).
A look inside Pinterest’s offices.
One last point — That Target ad could have been a tosser. But, because we took a minute or so to flip through it, we discovered this brilliant connection. Making the time for discoveries is something we all should consider doing.
Say curious my friends!
-LP
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