In today’s fast-paced and ever-evolving advertising landscape, brands face relentless pressure to stay relevant amid rapid cultural shifts. Advertisers must not only capture the attention of their target audiences but also anticipate emerging trends before they fully materialize. As we approach the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Pinterest has risen to the challenge with transformative AI-driven advertising solutions. These innovations enable brands to transition seamlessly from inspiration to action, guiding users from the top of the marketing funnel all the way to conversion.
Pinterest Ad Labs and AI-Powered Auto-Collages
At the heart of these advancements is Pinterest Ad Labs, which is pioneering auto-collages—a groundbreaking feature that allows advertisers to convert their existing Pinterest product catalogs into a plethora of shoppable collages in mere minutes. This tool has the potential to reshape how brands present their products and engage with users.
Auto-collages capitalize on the popularity of collages among Gen Z Pinterest users, a cohort that has already created tens of millions of such visuals. By leveraging AI, Pinterest analyzes user engagement insights to automatically generate appealing collages that resonate with target audiences. Early testing revealed that users saved these auto-collages at twice the rate of traditional product Pins, demonstrating their effectiveness.
This innovation allows advertisers to easily reach potential customers by offering a myriad of creative options for their campaigns, all while saving significant time and resources. But how does this magic happen? Auto-collages function by:
- Outfit Ideas: Building stylish looks by curating clothing items based on existing outfits.
- User Engagement: Creating collages that replicate existing visuals with high engagement rates.
- Similar Products: Grouping analogous products together into attractive grid-style collages.
- User Saves: Producing personalized collages featuring items similar to what users have already saved on their boards.
One notable retailer engaging with this new feature is Macy’s, currently providing feedback to enhance the auto-collages. “Auto-collage was born out of the Pinterest Ads Labs program that launched last year, where we innovate new generative AI products that help brands stay ahead of the curve,” said Julie Towns, Pinterest vice president for product marketing and operations. “The auto-collages tool is an exciting leap that harnesses AI to instantly transform how brands turn their product catalog into fresh creative that resonates with Gen Z and beyond.”
Pinterest is not merely a platform for browsing; it is a launchpad for consumers ready to make purchasing decisions. Users frequently head to Pinterest looking for inspiration, making playlists of their favorite ideas in the form of boards, and then shopping for products that catch their eye. With intent-driven engagement like this, trends on Pinterest offer valuable insights for advertisers.
The Power of Pinterest Trends Tool
Pinterest claims a unique advantage by tapping into extensive user data to provide early insights into consumer trends. These insights have made Pinterest an indispensable ally for brands aiming to capture the attention of their target demographics. Trends on the platform tend to enjoy a longevity twice that of trends found elsewhere. By harnessing its advanced AI and visual clustering technologies, Pinterest has enhanced its Trends tool, offering deeper insights for advertisers looking to forecast purchasing behavior.
Here’s how the upgraded AI-powered Trends tool can empower brands:
- Shopping Trends: Converts user curation into actionable insights. For instance, a skincare brand aiming to engage Gen Z can pinpoint the categories they are trending towards based on what users are saving on boards and the items they are clicking to purchase on e-commerce sites.
- Trends in the Spotlight: Eliminates guesswork by grouping trends into high-level themes, giving brands a clearer view of opportunities. A skincare brand could easily check the top five trending topics under “beauty” and access rich descriptions and visuals to inform their upcoming campaigns.
- Editors’ Picks: Delivers curated data on cultural trends that resonate. Brands can leverage these insights to proactively craft campaigns that respond to current cultural moments through Editorial Sponsorship.
In recognition of the growing importance of data-driven marketing, eBay has successfully utilized the Pinterest Trends tool for campaign insights. As Subbu Chandrasekaran, marketing platforms at eBay, states, “Pinterest’s trends data is highly valuable for understanding what matters to shoppers on any given day. It not only offers insights into what users are actively searching for but also enables us to build systems that identify which trends are truly shoppable. We’re excited to leverage this innovation to better connect our inventory with high-intent relevant audiences.”
Pinterest Performance+ campaigns have already shown to outperform traditional campaigns in 80% of A/B tests, thanks to these AI advancements and ongoing innovations. With these new tools, Pinterest is vigorously reshaping how brands can effectively target consumers at the right time and place, fostering an engaging and immersive shopping experience.
Pinterest’s Presence at Cannes Lions 2025
As Pinterest prepares for the Cannes Lions 2025, it will showcase these powerful AI innovations to an audience eager for fresh ideas. The company’s leaders will explore how Pinterest’s unique blend of trend foresight and creative tools empowers brands to turn inspiration into action, providing a unique framework for advertising success. For more information, visit here.