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#23 Pinterest Just Dropped Coffee with Emma Chamberlain

This one's a great comms example and I think we should look at it.

Author

Senda from tl;dl
July 18, 2025

☕ What Just Happened?

Pinterest launched a limited-edition Salted Caramel Toffee coffee blend with Emma Chamberlain, the YouTube girlboss-turned-coffee-CEO. The drop lives inside a Pinterest board disguised as an eCommerce store:

🤯 Why Is Pinterest Selling Coffee?

Short answer: They're not.
Longer answer: They’re selling a new story about themselves.

This isn't a pivot to DTC. It’s a comms-led brand moment — designed for culture, press, and virality, not margins.

📈 The Results

  • 1,500+ earned media mentions in 48 hours

  • Social buzz across TikTok, Twitter/X, and Instagram

  • Chamberlain fans + Pinterest girlies = instant virality

  • Actual Pinterest product? Unchanged.

No major ad budget. No massive influencer seeding. Just a cultural bomb.

🧠 The Strategy Behind the Brew

This wasn't about coffee. It was about narrative design.

Pinterest wanted to:

  • Prove it’s not just a mood board

  • Dip its toe in product-commerce without launching a SKU line

  • Partner with someone who is the aesthetic (hi, Emma)

  • Show you what brand behavior looks like when comms leads the room

And it worked.

The entire campaign is just... a Pinterest board!!!

🧃 What We Can Learn

1. Let Comms Lead Creative

The marketing team would’ve turned this into a product funnel.
The comms team turned it into a story.

2. Stop Overbuilding. Start Surprising.

The product wasn’t a big swing — it was a vibe.
And that was enough to make the internet care.

3. Think in Moments, Not Campaigns

No CTA. No promo code. No ROI spreadsheet.
Just something so cool it earned its own reach.

Don’t wait to launch simple and impactful campaigns…