We took a native and innovative social media format to show the truth that the fashion industry wants to hide. Using this, we found a clever and cost-effective way of telling our story in a place where our target audience hangs out most – Pinterest. Millions use it to pin and repin latest trends and fashion inspiration – especially around the ‘fashion weeks’ season. Using the expandable pin feature of Pinterest’s feed, we developed fashion pins that took advantage of the hidden part of the image. When first seen on your feed, the images look like typical fashion shots. But once clicked and expanded the image reveals the bloody truth behind fashion, encouraging you to try cruelty-free alternatives on PETA’s vegan fashion platform instead.

During the Fall/Winter 2016 fashion weeks season in NY, London, Berlin, Milan and Paris we seeded fashionable shots of fall/winter clothes and accessories on Pinterest feeds. Also, we used fashion keywords that would show our images in the search results. Once clicked, the pins expanded and revealed the true cruelty behind the fashion. It also showed the alternative – PETA’s ethical fashion platform.

During the New York fashion week in February 2016 alone, almost half a million users on PETA’s social media channels looked at the campaign. Plus there were hundreds of influencers sharing the campaign. London, Paris, Madrid and Milan Fashion Weeks 2016 would add an estimated 2 million more viewers. They would get to experience our campaign first hand and browse the vegan fashion platform, already at an 800% surge since the launch. For a 6-week-old campaign, the figures are staggering.

This campaign showed how the smart use of a native social media format, with a simple extra feature, can turn it into the epicentre of a social media storm. With minimal spend, the targeted reach translated into big results with thousands of views, repins and visits to the destination website.

Style and fashion is the second most popular category on Pinterest, and the network continues to grow as a repository for inspiring fashion content. There are over 100 million active users and more than 85% are women. Pins related to fashion peak during the fashion weeks season held around the world, so this was our ideal opportunity to hook fashion lovers. It would make them sit up and take notice and also check out PETA’s fashion platform.

Despite all the passionate campaigning and industry regulation, millions of innocent animals are still abused and killed each year, to make us feel good and glamorous. All in the name of fashion. PETA wanted to not only increase awareness of this, but also give consumers an alternative; by directing them to its own fashion platform, ‘How to dress vegan’. This platform shows us that cruelty-free fashion can look and feel just as glamorous as regular fashion. Our challenge was to make a big impact digitally on our fashionista audience and then drive them to the platform – with minimal spend.