Cutting Through the Clutter: The Power of Pinterest

When Pinterest was first introduced in 2010, I must admit, I didn’t really understand the big draw.

Certainly Pinterest provides a great way for businesses to display their products or services. Architects can showcase beautiful buildings they’ve designed or photographers and artists can share their portfolios or car companies can show off this year’s models. And the list goes on. After all, they’re trying to sell something based on visual appeal and Pinterest certainly delivers on that point.

But for the consumer, it seemed to me to be nothing more than a slightly narcissistic, time-wasting exercise—a way to share your personal bulletin board with the world. Why would others care that you love designer shoes, gourmet meals, super-organized closets, dazzling jewels or sun-drenched beaches? If I see photos of things I enjoy or think are especially beautiful, I’ll take time to appreciate them or maybe I’ll frame them for a wall, but I don’t feel the need to jump onto a social media platform and share them with others.

Then last week I came across this post, in which writer Joe Berkowitz points out “UNICEF has turned that naked consumerism on its head with a Pinterest board that showcases a human being’s most basic wants.” This particular board created by UNICEF features the wants of a 13-year-old girl from Sierra Leone. Viewers can click on any of the photos to share and repin or to make a donation to the UNICEF campaign.

Here’s what we didn’t see on her Pinterest board: photos of designer shoes, luxurious gowns, gourmet meals, diamond jewels or exotic vacation destinations. Instead, we see photos of a small pile of rice in a pair of weathered hands, a worn pair of pink sandals, water filling a metal pail, hands holding a bar of soap.

Nothing fancy, nothing beautiful—just some photos showing this young girl’s simple needs and wants.

As intended, these images hit me hard.

Here was an excellent example demonstrating the power of Pinterest. Brilliant in its execution. Brilliant in its simplicity. And brilliant in its stark contrast to everything else that appears on Pinterest. That’s what you call breaking through the clutter!

My point here isn’t that you should run and create your board on Pinterest (although certainly there are many ways to use Pinterest and it’s worth exploring). The more important point here is that the end goal of any marketing is to be noticed—to break through the clutter.

With so many channels and bits of data and information competing for our attention in this hectic world of ours, this is no easy task. But as the UNICEF campaign clearly demonstrates, it is possible.

How will your products or services get noticed? How will your business break through the clutter?