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In the news this week is the announcement that picture-sharing platform Pinterest has selected the UK for its first above-the-line ad campaign, scheduled to debut next month. As part of the push, its brokered a deal with Channel 4 to run a seven-month contextual ad campaign, which Pinterest says will be highly personalised and localised, tapping directly into an individual’s TV viewing habits.

The multi-channel campaign will run across OOH, digital and TV, with the intention to demonstrate how Pinterest can be weaved into everyday life, irrespective of age, demographic etc. It hopes to catch people at the moment when they might turn to Pinterest for inspiration, particularly after viewing a TV show relating to style, food and parenting. The 10-second TV ads will be based on 20 different TV shows, all airing on Channel 4. More than 100 creative iterations of the campaign are being developed, to focus on topics such as recipes for example, which will be tailored to locality, seasonal produce, trending topics and even the weather. In an interview to Marketing Week, Pinterest’s head of marketing, Elie Donahue, explains: “If you’re watching a programme that mentions brunch, we’re going to show you exciting ideas about brunch that relate to the UK – it’s something I haven’t seen done before”. The concept was developed by Pinterest’s in-house team, and is being executed by Mediacom and Stinkdigital. The fact the campaign is launching in the UK and not the US where it’s based, shows the importance of Pinterest’s non-native market, and its overall desire to be seen as a global platform. The platform claims its UK users pin 2.2bn items per day.

Why TV?

Earlier last year, Facebook ran its first British TV campaign, called “the friends”. Twitter also made its first real foray in TV advertising last year. Research by Nielson found that online businesses invested more than £500m in TV in 2015, an increase of 14% on 2014. While it may seem a traditional medium, the rise of multiscreening in UK households has helped to maintain the effectiveness of TV advertising. It’s a behaviour that’s growing as audiences increasingly go online and search for additional information surrounding a TV ad they’ve just viewed. According to the recent Mediatel Connected Screens survey, 54% of respondents in broadband homes watch a TV screen while using a laptop or personal computer at least once a week. A further 47% watch television while using a smartphone, rising to 60% for those households that have two. Additionally 73% of those aged 16-24 used a smartphone while watching television at least once a week, while 32% say they do so on a daily basis. Tablet usage while watching television on a weekly basis came out as being a little lower at 36%, rising to 57% among those aged 25-34. The Pinterest campaign will tap into this audience behaviour, hoping that as audiences are viewing a TV show, they will be inspired to simultaneously go online, particularly during an ad break, to seek out and ‘pin’ relating ideas, weaving Pinterest into the complex media tapestry of everyday life. It wouldn’t be surprising if this sets a precedent for other online businesses, who may look to TV for their future brand advertising.