Is Pinterest the social e-commerce answer?

posted by Dave Allen, Leave a Comment

I wrote about Pinterest recently #, or more accurately, I wrote about being a man who uses Pinterest as I felt there was a rather sexist, elitist, East-West-coast-big-city snobbery aimed at it’s users. One male commentator supplied damning evidence of its “uselessness” because he surmised that the majority of its users were based in “fly-over country.” Who says American education is suffering..?

With news this morning that Pinterest raised $100 million from its backers #, perhaps that bright spark will think again, as this values Pinterest at $1.5 billion. Maybe having an audience that lives and shops in “fly-over country” isn’t such a bad thing?

And shopping is the key to understanding Pinterest’s valuation. The company may be able to provide the answer to increasing e-commerce on the social web. Facebook has been struggling in this arena #

The latest investment round was led by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten and Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has this to say:

“While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining.

“We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.”

So, Rakuten sees the potential of Pinterest users, who clip and share items, being motivated to make purchases of those very items they are sharing.

And here’s Pinterest CEO Ben Silberman:

“Our goal is to help people discover things they love, by connecting people through their shared interests. Bringing Rakuten on board gives us an amazing opportunity to move a step closer to this goal.”

I sense that the Rakuten investment isn’t about looking for a return on their money by selling Pinterest to the usual suspects – Facebook, Amazon, Google – but I could be wrong.

And let’s be clear here – don’t confuse Pinterest with a social network like Facebook. That’s not accurate. It’s more akin to Tumblr than Facebook. When using Pinterest you are technically following people’s passions, not those people themselves. Profiles on Pinterest (here’s mine #) are pulled from Twitter for instance, and can be left as simple as that. There is no “timeline” but there are ample opportunities to share everything that’s compelling to you. Think of it as Twitter on steroids where you can post an image with an embedded link and you have the ability to write 500 characters about the story behind the image. Here’s another example #.

And brands will be able to let their followers purchase their goods.

Maybe now we will see brands rushing to ensure that their websites are mobile-friendly and have a seamless mobile e-commerce solution, because I’d hazard a guess that a lot of Pinterest traffic is coming from the iPad.

And above all, your brand site better be Pinterest-friendly.

Talking of products: Uppleva from Ikea

posted by Dave Allen, Leave a Comment

Problem: Cables, cables, cables. Solution: Uppleva. And Ikea is serious too, they’ve added a five year warranty on this product.

Advertising versus products

posted by Dave Allen, 3 Comments

Let’s start here: Iain Tait leaves W+K to become ECD at Google Labs #, and then let’s consider a large, overly-speculative thought, not about why Iain left W+K as I have no idea only hunches, yet it means something for the world of advertising, but about an idea that’s been kicked around for a while – The End of Advertising.

Before you get too excited let me say that there’s nothing new there. That idea dates back to 2007 # and probably even earlier.

Perhaps today we might say that yes, we are now lurching towards the end of advertising, at least as we have known it. A realisation then, that battling the Internet platform (from an advertising POV) has been a useless endeavor and we now need to take a breather and face up to the fact. (That may sound hyperbolic but I’m standing by it.)

Here we are in 2012 and still the phrase ‘people and online advertising’ feels akin to oil and water to me. Not a cozy fit in other words. Yet one given, a truism if you like, is that people (whoever they may be) want products. That sort of closes the circle, right? Well, not really if advertising agencies keep using Internet/web/mobile platforms as if they’re Meta-TV’s, Meta-books and Meta-Newspapers..that mindset cannot last. It always seems to fall to tech companies to point this out. Last month Paul Adams, formerly of Google and now on the product team at Facebook, posted his thoughts in an article titled The Future of Advertising: Many Lightweight Interactions Over Time #. If you work in any facet of advertising it’s worth a read.

Anyway, sticking with today’s date rather than looking too far back (because nostalgia can be fatal to one’s ideas,) let’s look at what’s going on in the online product world just this month:

Facebook picks up Instagram (no link, it’s old news.)
Twitter creates IPA, the Innovators Patent Agreement # and buys social analytics startup HotSpots #.
TBWA launches product development arm, Pilot.is #.
Path raises $30 million #.

Facebook buying Instagram has the pundits all up in a twist trying to divine Zukerberg’s reason for purchasing the company, but perhaps it was only done to stop Instagram landing in the arms of a competitor that makes products: Google for instance?

The Twitter and TBWA news above came across my tweetfeed yesterday morning and of course there are more examples of big companies, ones that gain extra attention on the attention-scarce web, getting into the Internet of Things game that I must surely have missed. What I do know is that companies like Made By Many # have been at it for a while and Russell Davies # has been wrapping his head around Internet “things” for some time, and has had fun playing with them during RGAMakeDay #. And Portland-based Uncorked Studios # helped to make this – Safecast #.

Bell Labs has been at it for decades #. And recently we’ve seen Nest and Little Printer, two wonderful Internet products, one whimsical, one really useful #.

So what we are seeing is that it has been ongoing for a while, where it is a different way of approaching people online and interacting with them offline at the same time. Ongoing yes, but advertising agencies need to embrace change faster, even if by doing so they will only be drafting in the wake of the online users whose actions show us they are far out in front in this race.

Here’s a great quote from Iain Tait in a Techcrunch article # about his move to Google Labs:

“What I really want to do with my life is to get closer to the shaping of the connected world. For me that means getting deeper into the shaping of products and services, showing people the life-enhancing potential of technology, and helping to get those things into peoples’ hands. I believe that Google is in a unique position to make those things happen in the world.”

Perfect.

[Update] Techcrunch today: It’s Not About Instagram – It’s About Mobile #