Philips Launches “Pin Your City” Pinterest Campaign

Yet another brand has begun marketing on Pinterest, and this time it’s B2B and consumer brand Philips. The move comes as a bit of a surprise given Philips’ more traditional roots and corporate structure as a major conglomerate CPG company. The brand has not only joined Pinterest, but launched a somewhat interesting new take on a Pin to Win Pinterest contest.

The contest is called the “Philips Livable Cities #pinyourcity Contest.” The contest searches for the most liveable cities across the world. To enter the contest, users create a Pinterest board pinned with images around their city that tell why their city is both livable and loveable. A panel of city experts developed by Philips will judge all entries.  The boards that are the most inspiring and creative win the contest. Users must also label their Pinterest boards with the hashtag “#pinyourcity” for easy searching and exposure on Pinterest.

The contest offers a more fun side to an otherwise closed-off company, and provides brand exposure in a growing social network. However, there are a few things I would do differently. First off, the contest has only received 78 repins and the brand itself only has around 160 followers. It’s possible that Philips is using this contest to increase their follower base. Given the few pins Philips currently has on their boards, I would recommend them to begin pinning more images of their products as well as lifestyle-related images to actually get people engaging with their pins. Without this, driving users to their Pinterest page not helpful. Secondly, the low number of entries into the contest tells me they aren’t putting paid media behind the contest. Without media exposure, the number of entrants to the contest will be limited, and will likely be people who already followed Philips on Pinterest anyways.

Though there are changes I would make to the campaign, I do commend Philips for being one of the few more traditional brands to embrace this new social network. It’s great to see a non-fashion related brand using Pinterest to drive user engagement and increase sales.

http://www.pinyourcity.philips.com/?origin=13_global_en_pinyourcity_pinyourcity___oct2012_pinterest