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While the American Honda Motor Co.'s Pinterest page may be just a week old, the company is already going against the grain. While most brands are eager to have its followers pin their own content up on brand pages, Honda is paying its most influential pinners $500 each to take a "Pintermission," a 24-hour pinning break.
Part of the reason, according to the Ad Age article, is so the company can pin its own content, which will lead followers directly to its Web site for more information about its Honda CR-V, a car that skews toward Pinterest's predominately female audience.
According to Lisa Weser, senior VP at Fleishman-Hillard, Honda's move is a clever call to action that is likely to get results. Pinerly statistics show that pins with a call to action see an 80% increase in engagement. So Honda’s bet is a good one, says Weser. "Asking people to stop pinning for one day will ultimately get them pinning more," she says.
Hilary Topper, president and CEO of HJMT Public Relations, agrees with Weser that the strategy is sound—and cost effective. "Offering influentials $500 is a cheap, creative way to advertise," says Topper. Honda said that at least two of the influentials will use the money towards vacations at destinations they've been pinning about, like London and Hawaii. "They'll be motivated to pin Honda cars when they return and also write about the experience," says Topper.
The campaign does beg the question: How do you identify the influential pinners on your Pinterest page? Weser says it's not that difficult. Individual users and brands can choose from a variety of emerging services such as PinPuff, Pinerly and Curalate to mine Pinterest data, manage marketing campaigns and measure reach. "In many cases these services are free or of minimal cost," says Weser.
[Editor's note: When this story and Honda logo was pinned to PR News' own Pinterest board, a "$500" wrap-around appeared over the logo.]
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