Post-pandemic tech wars: veteran Pinterest from Droga5, booming upstart TikTok

There are so many online “platforms” out there that, sooner or later, they’re going to need to take to branding to differentiate themselves. For a while some at least, like TikTok currently, are such a phenomenon that there’s no need. But….

Pinterest, based on images with some video and gifs, seems almost last century now so it’s enlisted Droga5 New York to do some branding.

Its point of difference, says Pinterest, is the way it can feed people new and exciting ideas to actually act on: ‘You just might surprise yourself.’ Instead of sitting on your backside being a social media couch potato.

D5 creative director Tom McQueen says: “We give our time up so freely to things that give us nothing in return: mindlessly scrolling feeds, fishing for likes or retweets. Pinterest is an open invitation to reclaim some of that time and invest it in discovering something new. Here, you can peel back layer after layer of ideas, follow new and exciting threads until you end up somewhere unexpected but totally right for you.

“We wanted to translate this surprising journey on the platform and bring to life all the wonderful ideas Pinterest feeds people to act on.”

At the other end of the tech spectrum, if you like, is all-conquering TikTok. Maybe the biggest existential threat to Facebook. And it seems to have got its commercial act into gear.

Barilla pasta is picking up on an individual post a year or so ago with a fully-fledged campaign.

While UK agency Dark Horses is plugging TikTok’s sponsorship of the forthcoming Euros football championship. As it says, TikTok wasn’t even invented the last time these were held four years ago.

MAA creative scales:

Pinterest: 8 (but will it be enough?)

Barilla: 7 (works in that medium)

Euros 5: (might be enough if partly user-generated’s your thing)