Instacart, E.l.f. Cosmetics enter partnerships with Pinterest
A grocery technology company and a beauty brand popular with Gen Z are both integrating different parts of their operations with a visual-oriented social platform.
Instacart is connecting its retail media network to Pinterest user, while E.l.f. Cosmetics is matching digital color analysis to shoppable Pinterest boards. More details of each collaboration follow:
Instacart
In the initial phase of the Instacart-Pinterest partnership, select brands advertising on Pinterest will be able to advertise their products to Instacart first-party audience segments built from real-world retail purchase behavior, in an effort to reach high-intent consumers with more precision.
A second phase is expected to introduce closed-loop measurement, which would tie Pinterest ads to actual product sales across the Instacart retail marketplace and help prove campaign impact with real purchase data.
"Pinterest is an incredible platform for inspiration, and that inspiration can often lead to a purchase," said Ali Miller, VP of ads product at Instacart. "By layering in Instacart’s valuable retail media data, we’re giving brands a more targeted way to reach high-intent Pinterest users at the right moment, when they’re open to discovering something new and deciding what to buy next."
Pinterest ads will become directly shoppable via Instacart, giving Pinterest users the ability to complete a purchase in just a few clicks. Pinterest advertisers will also gain a new way to leverage first-party audience data from Instacart. This means the ability to target and reach Instacart consumers based on actual purchase behaviors, like fans of gluten-free snacks or low-sugar beverages on Pinterest.
"With powerful first-party data by Instacart, brands can reach Pinterest users at the exact moment of intent and turn ads into shoppable experiences on Instacart," said Samir Pradhan, VP of product management at Pinterest. "This partnership transforms discovery into purchase in just a few clicks, bridging the gap between inspiration and action for millions of Pinterest users."
Instacart began efforts to bolster its functionality as an advertising platform by collaborating with e-commerce marketing platform CommerceIQ on an offering called CIQ Advertising for Instacart in 2021, and recently released a suite of new AI-based automation tools for brand advertisers.
Other recent moves by Instacart to enhance its offering to advertisers include an expansion of its existing partnership with TV streaming platform Roku to offer capabilities such as shoppable ads and improved targeting.
[READ MORE: Instacart, Roku enhance ad partnership]
The company has also extended the reach of ads for food service companies in partnership with Cut+Dry, an e-commerce and advertising platform for independent foodservice distributors and manufacturers; as well as launched inspiration-focused ad solutions for CPG brands.
E.l.f. Cosmetics
E.l.f. Cosmetics, an E.l.f. Beauty Inc. brand, is introducing “color e.l.f.nalysis”—a global, immersive digital experience for personalized beauty. With this tool, users can discover makeup shades that harmonize with their unique features and get matched with a curated Pinterest board featuring shoppable E.l.f. products tailored to their individual color matches.
This free experience delivers color-season analysis with no gatekeeping. Customers can snap or upload a selfie and the tool analyzes their hue (warm or cool), value (light or deep contrast), and chroma (bright or muted) to determine their color season and custom board.
“‘Color e.l.f.nalysis’” is about breaking down beauty barriers and making personalized color analysis accessible to every eye, lip, and face — for free,” said Patrick O’Keefe, chief integrated marketing communications officer at E.l.f. Beauty. “This tool, developed with Pinterest and in collaboration with real-life color experts, complements — not replaces — the human touch. It’s a smart, seamless, and fun way for our community to discover what works for them — and find their perfect E.l.f. product matches in just a few taps.”
By looking at seasonal user search, save, and shop behavior on its site, Pinterest identified trending searches to serve as the basis for E.l.f’s curated boards. The experience also features Pinterest's newest collages format.
“With 1.6 billion makeup-related searches over the past year and a 22x increase in interest around tools like ‘color season analysis,’ it’s clear consumers are craving personalized beauty experiences,” said Katie Dombrowski, VP of CPG at Pinterest. “We're thrilled to partner with E.l.f. to bring this innovation to life and meet users exactly where inspiration strikes.”
E.l.f. partnered with Pinterest creators to develop season-specific content through the platform's new creator partnership packages. This collaboration enables creators to produce Pinterest-first content and amplify their reach using Idea Ads with paid partnerships. The cosmetics brand also worked with social creative agency Movement Strategy to develop the feature.
