Pinterest 2012: Early Brand Campaigns

Pinterest 2012: Early Brand Campaigns

Pinterest is one of the most talked about and fastest growing social networks of 2012. What makes this social site different from the others is its pinboard-styled social photo sharing feature that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections.

Since it is still very new, a lot of major brands do not know what to make of it. However, a couple have already found creative ways to exploit the potential of the new social media destination.

Why the native loop matters

In early-stage social platforms, the first campaigns that win tend to be the ones that treat the platform’s native behavior, pinning, collecting, repinning, as the mechanic, not as an afterthought. The native loop, the repeatable cycle of pinning, repinning, and collecting, is what makes participation feel like curation instead of work.

In global consumer brands and agencies, early pilots work best when the platform’s native loop is the unit of design, not a channel to paste old formats into.

The real question is whether your idea makes the platform’s default action rewarding before you add any media spend.

Brands should ship only what is native-first, and skip anything that needs heavy explanation to feel like it belongs.

Four early Pinterest plays worth studying

Women’s Inspiration Day by Kotex

In Israel, Kotex reportedly identified 50 inspiring women and looked at what they were pinning on Pinterest, then sent them virtual gifts. If they re-pinned the gift, Kotex would send a real gift by mail. Smoyz, the agency behind the effort, claims nearly 100% of the women posted something about their gift, not only on Pinterest, but on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Puzzle by Peugeot Panama

Peugeot Panama ran a contest that awarded fans who completed their Pinterest puzzle. The brand’s Pinterest presence featured images of cars running over two or more boards. In each case, a board was missing. To get the missing pieces, fans had to go to Peugeot Panama’s website to find and complete the full image set.

Color Me Inspired by Guess

Color Me Inspired by Guess

Guess challenged its fans to create boards based on four spring colors: Noir Teal, Hot House Orange, Red Hot Overdue and New Plum Light. Participants were asked to title their boards as “Guess My Color Inspiration” and pin at least five images, each tagged with #GUESScolor, in them. Four winners were then chosen by fashion bloggers Kristina Bazan of Kayture, Michelle Koesnadi of Glisters and Blisters, Jennifer Rand of Belle De Couture and Samantha Hutchinson of Could I Have That.

Pinterest Lottery by British Midland International

Pinterest Lottery by British Midland International

British airline “bmi” launched a game of chance to engage its fans. With “Pinterest Lottery”, bmi encouraged fans to re-pin up to six images of its travel destinations Beirut, Dublin, Marrakech, Moscow, Nice, London and Edinburgh. At the end of each week, the company chose a number at random, and users who had re-pinned the image with that number qualified for a chance to win a free return flight.

What these early campaigns get right

These ideas differ in execution, but they all turn Pinterest behavior into a simple loop you can complete and share.

Extractable takeaway: When a platform is new, design around the action people repeat, then let the reward validate the behavior, not the other way around.

  • They make “repin” the action, not the decoration. The platform behavior is the participation mechanic.
  • They reward curation. People are not asked to broadcast. They are asked to build a board that reflects taste.
  • They turn visuals into utility. Gifts, missing puzzle pieces, color palettes, destination boards. Each idea uses images as a system, not as wallpaper.

Rules for your first Pinterest test

  • Start with one native behavior. Make it do the heavy lifting, then build the incentive around it.
  • Design for identity, not reach. Boards are self-expression. Campaigns that respect that feel less like ads.
  • Keep the rules explainable. If the mechanic cannot be retold in one sentence, participation drops.

A few fast answers before you act

What made Pinterest feel different from other networks in 2012?

Its core object was a curated pinboard. People collected and organized images by theme, which made self-expression look like curation rather than status updates.

What is the common pattern across these early brand campaigns?

They use Pinterest’s native loop. Pin, repin, collect, complete, as the interaction, then attach a reward or outcome to it.

Why did Kotex’s approach travel well?

Because the output was personal and “worth pinning”. The gift reflected what someone had already revealed about themselves through their boards.

Why do puzzle and lottery mechanics fit Pinterest?

Because Pinterest already feels like collecting. Turning boards into completion tasks or numbered sets makes the platform behavior feel like a game, not a campaign.

What is the biggest risk when brands jump onto a new platform too early?

Forcing old formats into new behaviors. If the campaign does not feel native to how people already use the platform, it gets ignored or mocked.

Cadbury Creme Egg: When Will It Goo

Cadbury Creme Egg: When Will It Goo

Cadbury, along with agency MCsquared Dublin, created an integrated campaign that enlisted the Irish public to help their giant Creme Egg release its Goo. Here, “Goo” is the campaign’s shorthand for the public release moment.

Eight rocking giant eggs, each protected in a transparent case, were placed around Dublin. Fans were asked to tweet “Goo” using #tweet2goo or enter via the campaign Facebook app. Every tweet and Facebook post made the egg get more “egg-cited” until it “egg-sploded”.

The entire Goo event was broadcast live on the Cadbury Ireland Facebook page, and participants were automatically entered into a draw to win tickets to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

From social input to physical payoff

The mechanic is a simple loop with a strong public proof moment. People post. The installation reacts. The reaction builds suspense. Then the payoff happens in public, with a clear “we did that” feeling for anyone who participated.

In Irish FMCG launches where seasonal products rely on impulse and talk value, turning participation into a shared street spectacle can earn attention that paid media cannot easily buy.

Why it lands

This works because it turns a familiar product truth, the goo, into a shared mission. Because people can see progress building toward a public release, each post feels consequential rather than disposable. The spectacle turns remote social actions into something you can physically witness, and the ticking progress effect gives people a reason to keep posting and to pull friends in. The live broadcast also gives the event a second stage, so even people not in Dublin can follow along and contribute.

Extractable takeaway: If you want social participation at scale, design a public system where every small action visibly moves a shared object toward an inevitable moment. The promise of that moment does the acquisition work.

What the campaign is really buying

It is not just awareness. It is repeat behavior during a short seasonal window. The real question is how to turn a short seasonal sales window into repeat participation instead of one-off attention. The hashtag and the Facebook entry mechanic reward persistence, and the prize draw adds a practical reason to participate even if you are not nearby.

What to steal for seasonal participation campaigns

  • Make the participation rule obvious. One hashtag, one word, one job.
  • Translate digital actions into physical feedback. That is what creates credibility and excitement.
  • Build suspense, not just a reveal. Progress is a stronger engine than surprise.
  • Give it two stages. Street spectacle plus a live stream extends the audience.
  • Add a lightweight incentive. A draw works best when the core experience is already fun.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “When Will It Goo”?

A Cadbury Creme Egg activation where tweets and Facebook entries drive giant public eggs toward a live “goo-splosion” moment.

Why does the physical installation matter?

It turns online participation into something visible and real, which increases belief, excitement, and sharing.

What is the role of the hashtag?

It is the simplest participation interface. It makes the action easy to repeat and easy to recruit others into.

What is the biggest execution risk?

If the installation feedback is slow, unclear, or unreliable, people stop participating because they cannot see impact.

How can a smaller brand replicate the pattern?

Use one shared object, one simple input, and one visible progress signal. The object can be smaller, but the loop must stay legible.

Google: Project Re:Brief

Google: Project Re:Brief

In 2011, Google partnered with four global brands in an advertising experiment. Their goal was simple. How can the ideas that defined the advertising industry in its infancy inspire a whole new generation of creatives and marketers?

So Google set out to re-imagine and remake some of the most iconic ad campaigns from the 1960s and 1970s with today’s technology, led by the same creative legends who made these campaigns.

Re-briefing classics with modern tools

The premise is a clean creative constraint. Here, a re-brief means keeping the original strategic promise while rewriting the assignment for today’s interfaces, devices, and distribution. Take an idea that became culturally famous in its original medium, then re-brief it as if you were building it for a digitally connected world. Not by “updating the look”, but by asking what the original strategy would do if it had today’s interfaces, devices, and distribution.

In global brand advertising, revisiting iconic work is a practical way to test which storytelling principles survive a major technology shift.

The four remakes

With that said, here are the results of the best of the old with the best of the new.

Re-imagining Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop”

Re-imagining Volvo’s “Drive it Like You Hate it”

Re-imagining Alka-Seltzer “I Can’t Believe I Ate That Whole Thing”

Re-imagining Avis “We Try Harder”

Why this format works for marketers

The real question is not whether old campaigns deserve a digital remake, but whether the original strategic idea still produces useful behavior in a connected medium. It forces discipline. You cannot hide behind novelty because the original idea is already known and already strong. That pushes the work to earn its keep through mechanics, not decoration. That works because a proven idea gives the technology a clear job to do, so the audience experiences the promise through behavior rather than explanation. When the core idea is clear, technology becomes an amplifier, not a replacement for strategy.

Extractable takeaway: If you want to explore new tech without producing gimmicks, start with an idea that already proved its emotional truth, then design one modern interaction that makes that truth more immediate.

How to borrow the approach without copying it

  • Pick one timeless promise. Strip it down until it fits in a single sentence.
  • Define one modern behavior. Sharing, scanning, tapping, responding, connecting. Build around one.
  • Make the mechanic do the explaining. The best remakes do not need a voiceover to justify the tech.
  • Keep a clear before and after. What stays from the original idea, and what changes because of the medium.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Project Re:Brief?

A Google-led experiment that re-imagines classic campaigns from the 1960s and 1970s using modern technology, guided by the original creative legends behind those ads.

Why remake old ads instead of creating new ones?

Because the originals provide a proven strategic baseline. You can see whether technology strengthens the core idea, or distracts from it.

What does “re-brief” actually mean in practice?

It means taking the original strategy and re-writing the assignment for a new media reality, then building a modern mechanic that expresses the same core promise.

What should a team learn from this kind of exercise?

That strong ideas travel across formats, and that the role of technology is to make the benefit more immediate, more personal, or more connected, not merely more complex.

How do you judge whether a modern remake is successful?

Look for clarity of the core idea, the usefulness of the interaction, and whether the mechanic creates behavior people would repeat or share, not just view.