Albertsons Taps Pinterest to Boost Targeted Sales up to 500%

Need to Know

• Albertsons is tapping Pinterest to promote its Own Brand private label products.
• With over 300 million users, Pinterest is functions more as a search engine than a social media platform, allowing users to pin recipes, products, and other things to pages.
• 83% of weekly “Pinners” have made a purchase based on Pins they saw from brands.
• Albertsons is using a new beta tool called Pinterest Trends that allows the grocer to track the most-searched items over the past 12 months.
• Some promoted items experienced sales boosts of over 500%.

Analysis

Grocery giant Albertsons is leveraging Pinterest to promote its Own Brand products, which included a number of seasonal items over the holidays. 

Pinterest is a web application that, while often considered a social media platform, functions more like a search engine. The “visual discovery engine” allows users to “pin” and share ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more using images and videos. 

Pinterest serves over 300 million users worldwide and has seen over 200 billion pins saved. According to the Pinterest Business website, “83% of weekly Pinners have made a purchase based on Pins they saw from brands.”

Naturally, in recent years, more and more brands are leaning into the power of Pinterest. Albertsons is trying out a new beta tool called Pinterest Trends, which provides a view of the top US search terms on Pinterest in the previous year. This will allow the retailer a better idea of how content will perform. 

“Albertsons shoppers want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new and exciting trends. We believe Pinterest is the perfect platform to inspire shoppers with a new take on holiday classics as they plan for the season,” explains Chad Coester, senior vice president of Own Brands at Albertsons.

In an effort to boost holiday sales and glean more insight on holiday food and beverage trends, the grocery brand ran a Pinterest campaign, highlighting over 150 seasonal items and special offerings. 

Albertsons’ campaign, which ran from October to the end of 2019, “included 10 standard and three video Pins each for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Holiday to offer fun, holiday-themed food and drink ideas to party planners and cooks.”

Partnering with the Pin Collective, a network of expert content creators, Albertsons created seasonal content reflecting the top food and beverage trends for the time. In order to gauge the campaign’s success, an in-store sales study was conducted, revealing some items experienced a sales boost of +154%, +229%, and even +500%! 

Adds Coester, “Using Pinterest Trends online and in-store enables Own Brands to be top-of-mind in a truly innovative way.”