Jazz, Grandpa core, and the colour blue are among the trends that Pinterest predicts will drive consumption in 2024. In its annual, not-yet-trending report, Pinterest dives into data to highlight emerging trends for the coming year, helping brands anticipate upcoming shifts in consumer behaviour. MediaCat Magazine’s Content Editor, Grace Gollasch, spoke to Louise Richardson, Director of Marketing, EMEA at Pinterest, about how brands can best make use of the report for 2024.
Can you share a brief overview of the predictive process?
Over 480 million people come to Pinterest every month with high intent to try or buy something, meaning our data is representative of what people are interested in and planning for in the future. It’s this planning mindset that provides us at Pinterest with a unique window into the future. Pinterest Predicts analyses data from the past months to identify the search terms and topics that have been seeing traction over that time period and show a strong upward trend globally.
When we predict and coin a trend on Pinterest, what we’re identifying is a meaningful, measurable shift in consumer behaviour that will only grow over time. A change in the cultural zeitgeist and a shift from what was the norm to something new. By harnessing the power of our predictive trend data, we’ve managed to build a trend-spotting model that enhances the precision of our trend predictions.
Considering 80 per cent of Pinterest’s predictions from the past four years have come true, how can marketers leverage this record to align their strategies with emerging trends in 2024?
Pinterest Predicts is one of the only reports that looks ahead to the coming year, rather than rounding up what people have previously been enjoying. The report provides brands with a future-gazing lens (a bit like having a crystal ball), helping them create marketing plans for the next year, which will be relevant and engaging. The fact that 80 per cent of the trends over the last four years have come true really shows just how accurate Pinterest’s methodology is — it’s not guesswork.
Ultimately, it means that brands can trust that the trends which shape and form their marketing strategies aren’t one-off fads.
For the first time, this year’s report is shoppable. How can marketers best capitalise on this new feature?
This year, we introduced the very first Pinterest Predicts Shop, a place where consumers can shop the Pinterest Predicts 2024 trends directly on the platform. This presents brands with a unique chance to target people who are actively searching for inspiration based on certain trends and provide them with products linked to these trends as soon as they want them. Helping turn their inspiration into action. People don’t come to Pinterest to passively scroll through their feed, they are actively searching for inspiration and looking to plan, which in turn translates to strong purchase intent.
Pinterest is opening its first-ever pop-up store in NYC. How will this best benefit brands?
As I mentioned, people come to Pinterest with a planning and shopping mindset and so, to capitalise on this, we opened a first-of-its-kind pop-up store in NYC. This showcases Pinterest Predicts 2024’s trends and offers shoppers products related to these. As the trends are based on user data which accurately predict what people are looking for, brands at the pop-up know that by aligning themselves to the trends, their products will be in demand and ultimately more likely to sell.
Can you share an interesting case study of a brand using Pinterest Predicts in the past?
A standout trend from a previous Pinterest Predicts report was ‘Dopamine Dressing’. As more and more people started dressing in vibrant, feel-good colours, we, and our client sofa retailer DFS noticed the trend making its way into the realm of interior design. Although this referenced fashion, we often see fashion and home trends converging and influencing one another. Trusting the insights from the Pinterest report, DFS launched Dopamine Brights — a vibrant collection for the home influenced by our fashion trend. The campaign with bright-coloured furniture and home accessories had an engagement rate of 13.52%, which is nearly double that of the next best campaign, and the creative also drove £450k in revenue throughout the year.
What 2024 trend do you think will have the biggest impact?
I think the ‘Eclectic Grandpa’ trend may be the standout trend for 2024. We’re already seeing consumers connect to it on an emotional level via the passing down of clothes and styles throughout generations. As well as that, retro streetwear and chic cardigans are already top of the agenda for Gen Z, as style icons Harry Styles and Tyler the Creator are already huge fans of the look.
As we look ahead to 2024, we can definitely expect to see more young people save and shop ‘grandad style’ clothing on Pinterest. Fashion brands can do well to get ahead of the curve and cater to this growing trend by showcasing their chunkiest knits, slouchy cords and retro sunglasses.
Featured image: Brian Asare / Unsplash
