It’s no longer novel when brands hire fashion bloggers to shill their goods. But Christine Martinez has become the first pinner to enjoy a relationship with a brand. The Pinterest tastemaker is spending the week in tropical St. Bart’s “live-pinning” a photo shoot for fashion brand Calypso St. Barth.
“It’s the first of it’s kind ‘power pinner’ and brand collaboration, and I’m beyond thrilled to be a part of this,” she wrote on her blog, Miles to Style.
Currently, Martinez is the fourth most-followed user on Pinterest. Even back in December we knew she was going places—she was number three on our list of the top 10 most influential users on Pinterest.
Although Martinez has nearly 1 million Pinterest followers, this week she isn’t pinning on her own boards. Instead, Calypso St. Barth is attempting to lure some of the fashionista’s fan base over by making her a collaborator on the company’s own Pinterest page.
However, it’s unclear how effective this will be. On Pinterest, users do not need to follow another user’s entire list of boards—they can pick just one. For example, just 80 people have a full subscription to all Daily Dot boards, but 175 people follow just our Celebrities on Pinterest board. Pinterest does not add up the total of individual board follower counts.
Calypso St. Barth itself only has 656 followers on its home page. However, it has 570,866 on its Island Photoshoot board, where Martinez is pinning. In order for the fashion label to benefit from this relationship, it’ll need to convince some of Martinez’s fans to follow all boards.
If this pioneering partnership prospers, it could spell out opportunities for other power pinners. We’ll be watching closely to see if brands view this as the beginning of a beautiful—and lucrative—friendship.
Photo by Christine Martinez on Pinterest
