Did you think Pinterest was just for moodboarding your latest hairstyle or that exotic overseas trip you’ll never actually end up taking?
Think again. The #1 reason people use Pinterest is to find new products and brands, which makes the visual social media platform an absolute gold mine for social media marketers looking to drive sales and reach new audiences.
Whether you’re new to Pinterest marketing or looking to improve your existing strategy, you’re in the right place because we’ve rounded up 10 of the best brands on Pinterest.
Let’s get into it.
1) IKEA USA
IKEAUSA / 751,600 followers / 10+ million monthly views
Interior design is the most popular category on Pinterest, with a mammoth 682 million boards and 23+ billion pins related to this content theme. Which makes the platform an ideal fit for IKEA, one of the world’s biggest home decor brands.
But just because they’re a huge, multinational corporation, that doesn’t mean their marketing team has unlimited time on their hands. They’re clearly big fans of working smarter, not harder because they regularly cross-post TikTok videos on Pinterest:
Unlike Instagram, Pinterest is perfectly happy for brands to share TikToks on the platform without punishing their reach. So this is a smart, low-effort way to get more eyes on your content and encourage followers to check out your content on multiple platforms.
2) LEGO
LEGO / 315,600 followers / 10+ million monthly views
Globally, Pinterest has 518+ million monthly active users. It’s a safe bet that many of those users are parents or are planning to have children soon. That’s why Pinterest is a big hit with toy brands like LEGO. (Not that we’re suggesting adults shouldn’t play with LEGO, too, of course.)
LEGO’s Pinterest is full of ideas for fun activities to enjoy with kids — like using LEGOs to build your own at-home mini-golf course:
We’re seriously considering doing this ourselves.
This is a case study of effective, engaging social media marketing. They aren’t just telling people to buy their products — they’re providing real value relevant to new and existing customers.
3) Maybelline
Maybelline / 3.1M followers / 10+ million monthly views
Pinterest’s single biggest user base is women aged 25 to 34, with this demographic accounting for over one-fifth of the platform’s global audience.
That overlaps perfectly with the demographic that spends the most money on beauty products, cosmetics, and services. So, it’s no surprise that cosmetics brands like Maybelline have made Pinterest a major focus of their social media marketing strategies.
As you’d expect, Maybelline shares a ton of makeup tutorials on Pinterest, like this one featuring beauty influencer Steph Aiello:
Like LEGO, these posts work well because they’re not totally sales-focused. Sure, Maybelline wants you to buy their products. However, they also want to ensure that customers know how to get the most possible value from their products.
Because happy customers are repeat customers.
4) Ray-Ban
raybanofficial / 69,200 followers / 10+ million monthly views
Pinterest reaches 40% of US households with an annual income of $150,000+, so it’s an obvious choice for brands promoting high-end products. Ray-Ban certainly falls into that category.
Ray-Ban ensures its products look as desirable as possible by sharing images of them worn by big names at glamorous events. And it doesn’t get much more glamorous than the Met Gala:
But it’s not all about bombarding us with images of beautiful people. Ray-Ban also brings a surprisingly practical edge to Pinterest by clearly describing the features and benefits of their products, like in this Pin promoting the brand’s Reverse collection:
As you can see, the caption does a superb job of explaining why these shades are worth the money. Because who doesn’t want sharp visuals and a disruptive aesthetic?
5) PayPal
paypal / 13,000 followers / 10+ million monthly views
So far, our roundup has primarily focused on fashion, beauty, and interior decor brands — precisely the types of businesses you’d expect to see thriving on Pinterest.
However, PayPal proves that you don’t need to be in a “sexy” consumer niche to make Pinterest work for you. The financial technology giant has one major use case for Pinterest: showcasing real businesses that are succeeding with the help of PayPal:
Their wall is full of video and image pins promoting small businesses like Askinosie Chocolate and Block Shop Textiles. Our favorite thing about this strategy is that it barely mentions PayPal, which makes the whole thing feel more authentic.
This helps to position PayPal as a company that cares about the little folk. This is a smart play, given that two-thirds of Americans seek to actively support local businesses.
6) HP
hpinc / 27,500 followers / 10+ million monthly views
From endpoint security technology to hybrid working solutions to smart printing systems, tech giant HP sells a lot of complex stuff. Frankly, not all of their products and services are a natural fit for a consumer-facing platform like Pinterest.
As such, HP has taught us a valuable lesson about the importance of tailoring your content to platform-specific audiences. Their Pinterest strategy is dedicated to promoting the brand’s Printables subdomain, which is full of ideas for useful things you can print—think greeting cards, coloring templates, productivity planners, and way more. And all those resources are free to download and print.
Sure, this strategy likely doesn’t generate a ton of instant printer sales.
But, like PayPal in the previous example, it helps to position HP as a brand that cares about its audience — even if they don’t currently use HP products.
7) Hyatt
hyatthotels / 14,300 followers / 10+ million monthly views
Don’t accuse us of stating the obvious, but Pinterest is a highly visual platform, so it pays to make your content — and profile — look aesthetically pleasing. Hotel chain Hyatt is well aware of this. Just take a look at the branding consistency across their Pinterest wall:
There are a couple of big benefits to this approach.
Firstly, it aids brand recall. Once you’ve seen a couple of these images, there’s a good chance you’ll attribute them to Hyatt — even if you don’t take the time to read the image text or caption.
Not only that, but it also makes Hyatt’s content production process far more efficient. All these posts (and lots more besides) are based on a standard, repeatable template, making it easy for the brand to create new posts.
The less time it takes to create content, the longer you can spend optimizing your strategy.
8) Louis Vuitton
LouisVuitton / 415,800 followers / 10+ million monthly views
Louis Vuitton understands that, as a high-end fashion house, your social media strategy can’t be solely about selling products. You have to sell your brand, too.
Spend a few seconds scrolling their Pinterest wall, and you’ll notice that plenty of their posts don’t contain a single LV product:
Most people aren’t going to see one of those images and immediately rush to the Louis Vuitton website to spend thousands of dollars on a bag. But that’s not the point. Posts like these are designed to communicate a general vibe that makes the brand feel luxurious and desirable, which can inspire sales down the line.
9) Garnier
garnierusa / 39,200 followers / 10+ million monthly views
When you think of influencer marketing, you’re likely envisioning a campaign on Instagram or TikTok. However, Garnier shows that influencer collaborations can work just as well on Pinterest. Their wall is full of short, TikTok-style videos featuring beauty influencers using their products:
Influencer campaigns are highly effective at influencing purchase decisions. Over one-third of consumers say influencer posts are the best way for brands to persuade them to try new products.
And with three-fifths of consumers having engaged with sponsored posts in the past, they’re also a fantastic way to generate more comments and shares on Pinterest.
10) Betty Crocker
bettycrocker / 2.3 million followers / 6.4 million monthly views
Now to another of Pinterest’s most popular categories: food and drink. Users have saved over 18 billion recipes on Pinterest, making the platform a perfect fit for Betty Crocker, one of the world’s most recognizable food and recipe brands.
Like any social media site, Pinterest wants users to stay on the platform rather than click through to external sites. So it rewards posts that inspire people to stick around.
Betty Crocker takes advantage of this by cramming Pins full of useful information. Rather than just sharing an image and a short caption, their recipe inspiration Pins typically include a full list of ingredients, plus the cooking time, review score, and number of servings:
All of this makes the brand’s Pinterest feel like a valuable resource hub rather than just a marketing channel for promoting a bunch of products.
Want to discover how successful marketers use Pinterest to grow their audience and achieve their business goals? Sign up for one of our upcoming social media conferences.
Featured image by Pixabay.
