• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 13, 2023

Pinterest kicked off its virtual event Wednesday with CEO Bill Ready pledging a safer platform for all, especially as depression rises for young users.

In his opening remarks Wednesday during Pinterest Presents, Ready spoke about the incidence of depression and anxiety among young people -- and pledged that the company will take the emotional well being of people more into consideration, and told advertisers: “If we don’t come through on this pledge, if we don’t keep our promises, don’t advertise with us.”

The company has shifted metrics and measurements from views and unconscious user actions to conscious actions like “saves,” because that’s what inspires people. The company will focus products on the emotional well being of its users.

Gen Z has become Pinterest’s fastest-growing and most engaged demographic on the site. Brands have become a critical part of that journey, with more than half of users saying shopping is the reason they come to the site.

Window shopping has turned into everything shoppable for every image and video, according to Ready. He said engagement with shoppable content rose 50% compared with the prior year, and retailers now get a customer, not just one transaction.

During the presentation, Pinterest announced new advertising and measurement formats and tools with support from a variety of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

Mobile deep links help to direct users to a specific page in a retailer’s mobile app, making it easier to shop for products after clicking on a shopping ad. Direct links take people from a Pinterest ad to a retailer’s website with one click, reducing the steps it takes for users to go from discovering a product to checkout.

Pinterest has also expanded its ecommerce integration from Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Adobe Commerce native applications to all monetized markets.

These integrations allow merchants to manage their Pinterest product catalogs and set up directly within the applications they already use for Salesforce or Adobe.

The company also highlighted Premiere Spotlight on search and the home feed, where brands can own premium placements to promote campaigns. This is available in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil and Mexico.

Showcase Ads are interactive ads that allow users to preview and explore a brand's content by swiping through branded images and discovering things like seasonal looks, mini recipe books or a car's unique features.

Creative Studio, a free tool in early testing, gives brands a way to create lifestyle imagery for product Pins. And Quiz ads enables brands to create engaging quizzes that lead consumers to more personalized ideas, helping them toward valuable purchase.

For agencies, Pinterest unveiled improvements to its automated business tools to help manage clients' presence on Pinterest, including Pinterest's Business Manager, a tool for advertisers that helps them efficiently automate complex workstreams.

Creatively shaping the client’s visions and shop those visions is now available in Collages. The feature is designed to help users personalize ideas, visualize the possibilities and creatively refine their vision to bring their inspiration to life.

It is done through advanced visual technology. Collages enable users to cut objects out of a Pin and combine them with other cutouts to create interactive collages of their favorite ideas. Collages bring a new, more immersive and joyful element to shopping on Pinterest.

Interested brands can get started by updating their catalogs so users can add their products to collages.