As the latest social platform to recognize the value of video content, Pinterest's move towards "video storytelling" suggests an accelerating trend within social media and eCommerce. To keep pace with industry developments, consider how and where video content might improve your platform engagement. 

Pinterest’s video pivot

Pinterest recently announced its "first-of-its-kind, multi-million dollar, global strategic partnership” with Tastemade “to scale creators, content series, and live streaming”. The platform hopes to increase engagement levels across its vast user base, underscoring the massive potential of its 433 million monthly active users worldwide (Statista). 

It might surprise you to see Pinterest make such a strong play for video. However, the platform has quietly moved to modernize and scale its content efforts across recent quarters. Currently, nearly 1 billion videos are watched every day on Pinterest, and the platform has shown a keen interest in increasing video storytelling that resonates with audiences. Given that Tastemade pins drive “200% more saves than the average pin”, it makes sense that the social media company sees this style of video content as the key to scaling worldwide. Malik Ducard, Pinterest's Chief Content Officer, has voiced admiration for Tastemade's success at expanding its platform, delivering engaging content, and building value (Pinterest Newsroom). 

With this Tastemade partnership, it appears Pinterest has put the accelerator on their existing modernization and video efforts. The collaboration will occur over several years, with initial programming launching in 2022 in the US, LATAM, Europe, and APAC. Ducard has revealed that 50 new shows will “debut exclusively on Pinterest”, featuring “talent from both the Tastemade and Pinterest creator communities from around the globe" and delivered “in at least eight different languages”.

What’s so unique about video content? 

Pinterest is a household name for hobbyists and businesses with inspirational social content. The platform succeeds by allowing its content producers to tell stories, connecting people to communities and ideas that make them feel inspired, emboldened, and more themselves. It’s a model particularly ripe for video optimization: as Tastemade Co-founder and CEO Larry Fitzgibbon reveals, “video […] is especially powerful in inspiring consumers to take action to create a life they love.” With “the biggest trends in media […] now in video, creators, and live streaming”, it makes sense that Pinterest has decided they need to adopt a video strategy. To survive and thrive in the new world of social media, Pinterest must continue to engage its users, speaking to people in a way that resonates. Hence Ducard’s insistence on partnering with platforms whose video content is “high-quality”. 

Pinterest is optimistic about the potential return on investment of a Tastemade partnership. It believes Tastemade’s experience will “activate creators, brands, and consumers alike […] catalyzing more high-quality video storytelling and overall engagement on Pinterest.” This “overall engagement” would pay dividends for the company: greater engagement with the platform, improved attentiveness of users, and strong MAU figures (Pinterest’s have remained broadly static for years) would put the platform in an enviable position to capitalize on advertising revenue and eCommerce partnerships. In an age of fragmented social media use, it would also improve the brand's prospects for longevity. 

 What this means for you

Pinterest’s savvy turn to video signals that you can probably do more to utilize and increase your audience value. More so than content, engagement is now king: and video is one of the best ways to tell inspirational stories and connect with your users.

What’s notable about Pinterest’s pivot is the scale of its rollout. The acceleration of its existing strategy suggests the platform is unwilling to waste worldwide opportunities. Pinterest's ability to partner with big-name content producers like Tastemade also reveals the ease with which already established brands can move into and dominate the video market.

However, there are ways for smaller platforms to utilize video content that require less upfront investment and still deliver results. Pinterest will use studios for their original Tastemade videos, launching in multiple countries simultaneously with different content. However, you can produce high-quality, resonant content by focusing on one country or language for your initial release, then considering localization for subsequent rollouts. Instead of creating original content in 8 separate languages, using a tool like Papercup for translation and localization can optimize your use of existing content. Combining AI machine translation technology and expert translator quality assurance can help you reach a larger audience and significantly improve user engagement.

With social media platforms like Facebook already offering sophisticated video content, Pinterest’s move to a similar space suggests the beginnings of a broader trend. If you want to capitalize on user engagement while videos are a value add rather than the expectation, now is the time to act. Just be aware of the need to speak to quality, tailor to your specific audience, and highlight the best type of content for your platform.