Nars, whose last social media campaign managed to generate not-insignificant interest in a new cosmetics collection without giving away free product, is hoping to do the same with its next campaign -- this time, on Pinterest instead of Facebook.
Nars has partnered with three popular Pinterest users -- East Coast design enthusiasts Danaë Vokolos, Caitlin Cawley and Bekka Palmer -- to offer early (and exclusive) access to its new Satin Lip Pencil collection. In collaboration with Nars, the three women have developed Pinterest boards for their own accounts that compliment the pencils' three color categories: red, pink and nude. For a week leading up to the collection's full release, Nars fans will be able to purchase the pencils only by clicking on product images pinned to the boards. New pins will be added throughout the week.
Viewers of the boards will notice that Nars didn't insist on heavy branding, instead encouraging the women to pin the kind of inspiring images Pinterest users like. Product placements will appear at intervals.
To any but the most die-hard Nars fan, the incentive isn't much of a draw, but there's a few things about the execution that are smart. First, selection: Nars didn't simply select the three most popular pinners for the campaign; instead, using Pinterest-specific analytics tool Pinfluencer, the company's digital marketing team identified three users who had already driven significant traffic to its website. Second, execution: While many companies (I'll call out Estee Lauder as an example) invite much-followed Pinterest users to "guest pin" for their own accounts, Nars was smart to encourage their partners to pin for their own accounts, and thus take advantage of their far larger followings.
Heather Park, director of digital media at Nars Cosmetics, says Pinterest is consistently one of the top 10 referrers to NarsCosmetics.com, but little of that traffic comes from Nars' own Pinterest account. "It didn't make sense to [have our partners] guest pin [for our account]," she said. "Why would we bring them away from their audience[s]?"