Pinterest: Would you Pin to Save? Gilt and other retailers think you might

Pictured: The Gilt Groupe Pinterest Board for Gilt Baby & Kids deals

According to a recent survey by Experian Hitwise, Pinterest is now the number three US Social Network.  After Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest has become the most popular social networking site.   I think those pretty pictures on Pinterest really help engage users socially.   It’s easy to look at pictures right? Easier than reading an article.  That may be why “web traffic to Pinterest has surged 50% from January to February in 2012” according to a Marketing Profs via the Experian Hitwise survey.  This makes Pinterest the new social network for retailers to try to leverage social networks for marketing promotions.  Everyone wants to catch the Pinterest wave in order to tag onto the growth of it’s audience. I have read that some Bloggers have been offered money by brands to pin the brand’s images to their boards.  One retailer taking advantage of the Pinterest tool is Gilt Groupe. Gilt recently launched a Pinterest campaign aimed at “Moms”‘ looking to buy clothing and items for their children.  Since 60% of Pinterest users are female, targeting Moms seems like a great idea.  With the Gilt Groupe campaign, users save by repinning to the Gilt board. When they pin, they unlock the deal. Like many social networking sites, it takes a group, or a social surge,  to really unlock the deal. The Gilt gimmick is a  “Pin It to Unlock” type of activity that yields discounts using the  Gilt Kids’ Pinterest board as a virtual coupon. Once a deal has been re-pinned 50 times, your pin then links to a hidden “secret” sale on Gilt.com where the discount priced items is available for a limited time.   After all the pinning, won’t users than go unlock the deal? It stands to reason that they will.

Is there a downside of repinning/posting to Pinterest? That remains to be seen. Pinterest has come under fire for saying that once an picture is pinned, the copyright rights can be vested in Pinterest.  Since the Gilt Groupe campaign is all about “repinning”, the copyright issues for users don’t really figure in. What is interesting to me is that Pinterest started as a way for users to share things they liked via images.  If brands use the boards as digital coupons, does it take away from the authenticity of the medium? What do you think readers? Do you use Pinterest now?