Pinning is Winning!

http://pinterest.com/pin/97812623127065922/

An electronic form of a bulletin board has taken the internet by storm. Pinterest is its name and marketing is one of its (fairly new) games. The amount of people joining Pinterest is simply amazing.

I am an avid Pinterest user and being that I am interested in advertising I want to look at how Pinterest is being used as a tool to advertise and market products to its large amount of users.

To start off, for those of you who do not know what Pinterst is, let me explain. Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board where you ‘pin’ pictures of things you find online, that you like, on categorized boards that you create. In order to create an account you have to submit a request that you want to join or be invited by someone who already has a Pinterest account, then once your account is created you are free to go pin crazy!

Heather Sundell a guest writer for Forbes worded it perfectly, “Consumers are predominantly using Pinterest as a virtual treasure box of dreams, wishes and aspirations.”

http://wideinfo.org/revealed-90-of-pinterest-users-are-women/

However, marketers see Pinterest as a way to advertise their product in a new way. Pinterest had 21.5 million visits during the week ending Jan. 28, a nearly 30-fold increase over a comparable week in July. It is the 3^rd most visited social media site in the U.S. with 104 million visits in the month of March behind Facebook who has 7 billion visits and Twitter with 182 million.

Here are some ways that companies are able to use Pinterest to market and advertise their services and or products:

-Make a Pinerest account for your company in order to showcase your services and products to all the users.

-Link your Pinterest account to your company’s main website

-Create coupons or special promotions for customers only available via Pinterest

-Make sure to use interesting and fun images to promote your company

Below is a great illustration of how marketers use Pinterest as a tool.

http://go.maxymiser.com/PinterestInfographicMarch2012_social.html

I have seen, personally, how Pinterest can be a great asset from the consumer side of things. Right now I am in the market for living room furniture and after being unsuccessful with finding anything that I like in the furniture stores around town I was not sure what to do. I decided to search Pinterest for couches and found all types of couches that I loved. I found many companies who had furniture that I did not know even sold furniture. 

Pinterest is a pretty new thing and the idea of using it as a tool for marketing and advertising has only begun. It will be interesting to see what changes we will see happen with Pinterest in the future.   

But in the mean time, Happy Pinning!

Advertising + QR Codes= Success

QR codes have brought advertising to a whole new level. You may ask how such an odd-looking thing works, or better yet what does the Q and R stand for or how has it been a beneficial thing to the advertising world? Do they have any downfalls?

http://www.cimex.com/digital/qr-codes-explained

For starters, QR stands for quick response. You scan the box, which looks like the picture shown below, with your phone or smart device and it directs you to more information, usually a website, about whatever the QR code was on. This has been a great asset to the advertising industry.

A combination of all the factors that are listed below, are the reason QR codes are such a positive thing in the world of advertisement.

-The mobile market is predicted to grow to $2.3 billion by 2016 (most if not all the scanning of QR codes is done with a mobile device which needs to have a camera)

-QR codes scan rates have jumped by 4,500% since the first quarter of 2010

-Smith’s Point Analytics’ report predicts more than 160 million QR codes will be created this year alone

How does this relate in a positive way to advertisement? From what I have learned about advertising, it is a balance of getting as much information as possible while also being aesthetically pleasing at the same time. Now with QR codes you are able to include a lot more information by simply incorporating a QR code somewhere within your advertisement. Finding that balance is easier than before. The down side is you have to incorporate that odd looking square of smaller white and black squares somewhere within your advertisement.

 Even with the odd look of them, you see them all around. To the right, I have included a clip which does a great job explaining how companies use QR codes to help advertise their product, especially through magazines.

So these things seem to be completely wonderful. Right? For the most part, however, like most things they too have their downfalls. Such as:

-In order to use them you have to have a device that has a camera

-You have to be able to connect to the internet either
 via your mobile data package or Wi-Fi.

-You have to have the correct software, usually through downloading an app, which has the capabilities to read the QR code

I am unfortunately an individual who does not have a data package included in my phone service, so the only interaction I have with QR codes is via my iPod Touch. I am limited to where and when I can use them because I have to have access to Wi-Fi in order for it to work. Maybe someday, hopefully soon, I will join the smart phone family and interact with QR codes more frequently.