Pinterest announced the launch of Pinterest TV, a series of live shopping episodes hosted by creators. New clips will be played every weekday at 6 p.m. EST in the Pinterest app, which starts on November 8 and can be viewed live or when needed. The show, which kicks off on Friday, hosted by comedian Robyn Schall, will feature live shopping malls, where viewers can purchase discounted products from companies including Crown Affair, Allbirds, Outdoor Voices, and more.
Pinterest TV marks the latest developments in the growing trend of buying live streaming. The sector as a whole is expected to grow to $ 25 billion in total industry sales in the US by 2023, according to Coresight Research, and already has $ 63 billion in China.
Home Shopping Network introduced the concept of live television shopping in 1982, but in recent years, the marketing strategy has revolutionized the digital age. Today, live streaming plays on the forums and websites of e-commerce merchants. Brands or brand products, and viewers buy them at the click of a button. Livestream shopping activities are available on Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. YouTube is also launching a live shopping campaign in early 2021 and will be hosting a week-long “YouTube Holiday Stream and Shop” event starting November 15.
While the opportunity is great for businesses, successful brands will need to have both mandatory marketing and the ability to improve.
Entrepreneurs should be prepared to answer a wide range of questions from viewers, suggests Maggie Katreva, head of social media for a Colorado-based child-bearing company, Lillebaby.
Livestream purchases are a promising marketing strategy. A study released yesterday by customer experience software company Emplifi found that trading – purchasing products through social media – has a huge potential for profit from brands and sellers, but less than 30 percent of businesses that sell directly on social media are fully involved. customers while doing so. That means they are leaders in a way they could not. With live purchases, businesses can meet with their customers where they are and send products directly to them – bringing a personal touch that can strengthen sales.
Pinterest is entering live shopping as part of its pivot from being a promotional shopping site to being home to the content creator. The company this morning announced a new feature in its app called Pinterest TV – a series of live, original, and affordable videos focusing on areas such as food, home, fashion, beauty, DIY, and more. Episodes will arrive mid-week from November 8 and will be available for viewing where needed.
Games will be hosted by Pinterest creators and will feature a chat feature where viewers can ask questions and participate in the experience.
The first Pinterest TV series includes “Christian On,” from American fashion designer, and “Project Runway” alum Christian Siriano; “My Unfair,” from the director and screenwriter Monica Suriyage, co-produced by Pinterest food creators to “fail” the chef’s holiday dishes across the country; The “Tom Tries,” accompanied by an Olympic gold medal dancer, Tom Daley, who is also a knitting expert and organizer of learning new skills for grandparents; “Manny Does,” from beauty businessman Manny MUA, focuses on the general needs of holiday beauty; “Buy This,” from comedian Robyn Schall, who, along with the creators of Pinterest, will be showcasing products from companies such as Patagonia, Melody Ehsani and Crown Affair.
To support the creative process, Pinterest also introduced a visual studio where producers will work with creators to help them improve their content and provide A / V support, so they can live more easily.
The new episodes will start airing from November 8 and will air Monday through Friday at 3 PM PDT / 6 PM EDT in the U.S. with the Pinterest iOS app to launch. Every Friday, the products will enter a live shopping experience where Pinterest users will be offered discounts on participating companies, including Patagonia, All Birds, Crown Affair, Melody Ehsani, Outdoor Voices, Mented, and more.
According to Pinterest’s call to action, the shows will be 30 minutes long and will feature a 10-30 minute pre-production call with the Pinterest team and an AV technology check.
The idea, Pinterest explains, is to create a new way for its users to be inspired – instead of browsing product images and ideas, as before, Pinterest TV allows the company to move forward in the video and creator economy.
This change is a pivot that Pinterest has been trying to make for months. With new social media platforms such as TikTok becoming a place for younger, Gen Z users to get ideas that also translate into online shopping, the Pinterest pinboard experience is starting to sound old-fashioned – like the capture of another era of the web. This is a problem facing other, older social media platforms, too. The head of Instagram, for example, recently said that its app will no longer focus on photo sharing, as it now accepts video.
Similarly, Pinterest has been working to make the video more relevant to its site. Earlier this month, we launched a TikTok-like “View” tab where users can scroll through the creators’ videos, like them, comment on them and save them to their Pinterest boards. These videos are a new type of Pinterest content called “Ideal Pins,” the first feature of the video that allows creators to express a certain type of idea or DIY – like cooking a recipe or doing a craft, for example.
To encourage creators to create videos, Pinterest invests $ 20 million in creator awards and provides other tools to allow them to monetize their content, such as those that enable affiliate links, product collaborations for sponsored content, brand marketing, and more.
However, much of what Pinterest did before the video so far was no different. Instead, it is about a site that plays host to where the web is headed – creator-supported content, videos, and live shopping information.
Pinterest TV is another example of this widely used program. And to be successful, Pinterest will need to be able to prove that it is worth the time and effort of the creators, given the competition between creative social media platforms – not to mention the big money creators given the popularity of Facebook, Instagram, Snap, and YouTube as it tries to combat the TikTok threat.
So far, Pinterest says creators who have screened Pinterest TV episodes have been able to grow their fans, with some creators more than doubling their fans after the live episode. However, the company will still need to prove that large-scale follow-up will translate into larger creators’ revenue over time. (In silence, Pinterest says it does not directly benefit from Pinterest TV).
Although Pinterest TV is only available for select creators, the company offers a subscription form for others who like to create TV episodes with the new service.
