After Acquiring tvScientific, Pinterest Pins Its Hopes on CTV

One of the best ways to boost the value of advertising on social media is moving it from the phone or laptop to the living-room TV. 

Just ask YouTube, which now dominates TV usage. 

The big benefit of social media is its users reveal their preferences as they interact with the platform. Oftentimes, they also share a great deal of information about themselves, whether it is a relationship status update on Facebook or a job change on LinkedIn.

Sites like these don’t readily translate to a TV screen, but the data generated by the users can be especially useful for marketers looking to target people in unique situations or with specific interests. For business-to-business advertisers, LinkedIn helps target executives in the right jobs in the right industry with CTV campaigns that reach them when they're not at work. 

When Pinterest acquired tvScientific in February, one of the rationales was to combine Pinterest’s signals about what its users intended to do with a CTV ad platform to help improve the results of campaigns.

Yesterday, Pinterest introduced tvScientific by Pinterest, which brings together Pinterest’s first-party audience data and the tvScientific ad platform.

“Pinterest brings a distinct opportunity, with more than 600 million monthly active users and growing,” said Lee Brown, Chief Business Officer of Pinterest. “Because of how users search and shop on the platform, we can give advertisers new ways to reach people at every stage of the shopping journey, from discovery to buying, both on and off Pinterest.”

Pinterest says that more than 50% of its users say they use Pinterest to shop, which provides strong signals around future intent and discovery.

Putting that data into tvScientific’s platform helps advertisers find new customers earlier in their journey and drive measurable business results on TV. By bringing those signals into tvScientific’s performance engine, advertisers can now reach consumers earlier in the journey and optimize CTV campaigns toward real business outcomes, not just impressions.  

Results from early tests show promise. TV set maker LG expanded its existing audience approach and delivered a 73% increase in unique households reached with access to Pinterest audiences. The additional reach drove a 24% lift in net new customers. 

On average, when tvScientific AI is enhanced with Pinterest’s signals, it resulted in a 27% increase in outcomes driven per $100 in spending, with purchases up 65%.

Pinterest said the product is the first step in a broader vision for unified cross-screen advertising. 

"The real opportunity for advertisers is turning consumer intent into action, and Pinterest's signals are unique because they reflect what people are planning, not just what they've already done," said Jason Fairchild, CEO of tvScientific by Pinterest. "Every month, there are more than 80 billion monthly searches on Pinterest, and by bringing those signals into tvScientific, advertisers can run more precise CTV campaigns and optimize toward the business outcomes that matter most."

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VAB said the new brand indicated that their first national TV campaign was a catalyst for expanding their visibility and building consumer trust. 

Their investment skewed towards the last four months of the year to capitalize on consumer spending leading into the holidays.

First-time multiscreen TV campaigns sparked substantial lifts in online branded search, converting attentive viewers into real customer prospects, the VAB report said. For example, Kiehl’s, a 174-year-old cosmetics brand, saw its branded search nearly double after it launched its first national TV campaign during the Oscars.

ChatGPT was the biggest spender among first-time TV advertisers, with an outlay of $91.1 million. The rest of the top five brands were Royal Kingdom ($79.8 million), Ebglyss Rx ($69 million), Capvaxive Rx ($62.6 million) and Nemluvio Rx ($62.5 million).

Top categories include pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence, mobile apps and health & wellness.

PEOPLE

Julie DeTraglia joins Nielsen as head of content and strategic insights. She had most recently been VP of ads measurement at Netflix. She also held posts at Amazon, Disney, Hulu and NBCUniversal.

"Julie has a rare talent for transforming data into clear, actionable strategy. She doesn't just look at where the market has been—she identifies the signals that tell us where it’s going next,” said Sacha Weinberg, Nielsen’s Head of Global Marketing. 

Tom Tidgwell was named CFO at Philo. Tidgwell previously served as CFO at Madhive. Philo also promoted Laura Dechant to COO from head of business operations.