I signed myself up for Pinterest Presents because, duh! It was the self-proclaimed “marketing event of the year.” Truthfully Pinterest Presents 2025 was basically a cinematic sales pitch, they actually dropped a lot of insights worth paying attention to.
The main takeaway from this keynote was that Pinterest wants us to see it as a personalized discovery engine for users and a personalization-powered marketing software for brands.
Pick Your Color
As consumers, we love to personalize everything, make things unique to us. Whether it’s picking the color of your phone, changing your background, or customizing a sneaker, personalization is often the most exciting part of a purchase. In marketing, personalization is everything. Thanks to AI and data, it’s only getting more advanced. “As more consumers seek tailored online interactions, companies can turn to AI and generative AI to better scale their ability to personalize experiences.” (McKinsey, 2025)
We’ve seen this for a while with cross-web tracking and personalized email campaigns. So what’s new? And why is Pinterest at the forefront?
“Structured Wandering”
What makes Pinterest so engaging is that it’s not just an app for 20 year olds like me to craft thor dreams on, it’s an experience. Unlike a traditional search engine where you know exactly what to type in, Pinterest thrives in that hazy space where you don’t yet know what you’re looking for. They even coined it: “structured wandering.”
At the center of this experience is visual search. You don’t really know what you’re looking for until you see. Pinners “intuitively discover, refine, and shop” styles they hadn’t even thought to describe, turning inspiration into precise matches…which is great for businesses, because people follow through on purchases at a higher rate.
Machine learning is tapped into every move. Every interaction fine-tunes the algorithm, much like other social platforms. Pinterest will suggest visually similar products from its catalog, refined by engagement data. The algorithm is curating personalized images that feel like your own. Pinterest almost anticipates intent, surfacing signals of what you might want before you even know to ask. It’s less transactional and more like a brainstorm partner pushing you to create.
The Frictionless Effect
This way of searching is engaging, interesting, and almost fun. In The Sirens Call, Chris Hayes describes the concept of frictionless experiences, where tech companies deliberately remove barriers to keep users perpetually engaged. That’s exactly what Pinterest has nailed. Just images, pulling you closer to inspiration without making you work too hard.
And the numbers prove it: 39% of Gen Z now start their searches on Pinterest because of its visual-first nature (Pinterest Presents, 2025). “Seventy-one percent of consumers expected companies to deliver personalized interactions, and 76 percent got frustrated when it didn’t happen.” (McKinsey, 2025). It’s less about answering a question and more about sparking an idea.
Why Marketers Should Care
Pinterest was basically saying: if you’re not using Pinterest to market your business… why not? And honestly, they weren’t wrong. Their platform is pioneering personalization in a way that is especially popular with younger audiences like me.
With a suite of martech and analytics tools, Pinterest is positioning itself as a marketing software. If you’re in CPG marketing, with all the emphasis on personalization, it would almost be stupid not to leverage it.
Works Cited
Bughin, Jacques, Eric Hazan, and Lars Fæste. Unlocking the Next Frontier of Personalized Marketing. McKinsey & Company, Apr. 2025, https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/unlocking-the-next-frontier-of-personalized-marketing
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Hayes, Chris. The Sirens Call: Frictionless Tech and the Future of Engagement. HarperCollins, 2023.
Pinterest. Pinterest Presents 2025. Pinterest, 2025, https://business.pinterest.com/pinterest-presents
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