Promoted Pins: Catching Users’ Eyes With Cinematic Pins

On May 18th, Pinterest announced new improvements to Promoted Pins. The advertising platform is rolling out new audience targeting, new payment models and a whole new style promoted pin – Cinematic Pins.

So what are Cinematic pins? 

Cinematic pins are pins that play move as the pinner scrolls down their home feed. If you stop scrolling, the pin stops moving. But if you click on the pin, a short video will play. Think of Cinematic pins as a “rubbable” gif, but instead of “rubbing” the image, you’re scrolling through your Pinterest feed.

Not only are Cinematic pins new to Pinterest, they’re also an entirely new way for brands to use video for advertising.

Cinematic Pins – A New And Improved Video Advertisement

Other social media platforms have found great success with video-based advertising, but many users find the auto-play feature frustrating. Pinterest’s general manager of monetization, Tim Kendall, told TechCrunch that Cinematic Pins gave advertisers a way to utilize video without compromising the pinners experience.

What truly differentiates Pinterest’s Cinematic Pins from the auto-play advertisements on other platforms, is the fact that pinners control the video. They can scroll on by, ignoring the moving image and not having a surprise sound pop up in their ear, or they can click to learn more. This gives brands the extra chance to catch the eye of the pinner using video, without interrupting the pinners feed.

By putting the user in control, Pinterest is honoring their core value of putting pinners first, while helping brands capture more impressions. Although I haven’t seen any “in the wild”, I believe Cinematic Pins will be a game changer for marketers everywhere.

What do you think about Cinematic pins? Let us know in the comments!