Check out the 2-page pitch deck Pinterest is using to woo advertisers as chaos swirls around TikTok

• Pinterest is moving to take advantage of the chaos around TikTok in the US.
• In recent days, it began circulating a pitch deck, touting its Gen-Z audience and brand safety.
• TikTok is back now for US users and some advertisers have returned, while others are more cautious.

TikTok only went "dark" in the US for a few hours this weekend, but that hasn't stopped rivals swooping in to court its advertisers as uncertainty lingers about the app's long-term future.

As advertisers prepared for a possible TikTok ban in the US, Pinterest circulated a pitch deck promoting the company as an alternative.

The deck linked to a hub on Pinterest's website with an offer of a limited-time incentive of bonus media — free ad space, in other words.

Pinterest also touted its creative support to help advertisers repurpose their ads for the platform and measurement services to assess campaign success.

"As major shifts take place across social platforms, many brands are developing new plans to deliver their goals," the deck said. (Business Insider obtained a copy, which can be viewed below.)

The deck cited data from the measurement firm Comscore, which said that half of TikTok's US Gen-Z audience was already on Pinterest.

Pinterest clearly has e-commerce advertisers in its sights. The deck referenced a survey conducted by the research company Reach3 that Pinterest commissioned last September. The survey found Pinterest's weekly users were "86% more likely" than weekly users of Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, and TikTok to say they were ready to shop when they opened the app.

Pinterest also listed one of the benefits of advertising on its platform as being able to "reflect your company values in your media choices." That certainly feels like a shot at TikTok.

TikTok has said it has around 170 million US users. By comparison, Pinterest was estimated by the research company EMARKETER to have 85.4 million US users last year. EMARKETER pegged TikTok's 2024 ad revenues at $12.34 billion, while it estimated Pinterest pulled in around $2.69 billion.

TikTok didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. On Sunday, the company said in a statement that it would work with President Donald Trump on a solution to keep TikTok in the US.

US advertisers are already returning to TikTok, but some are cautious

Last week, the US Supreme Court upheld a law forcing ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell its US operations by January 19 in order to address national security concerns.

TikTok went dark for a few hours starting late Saturday ET, before returning Sunday after Trump expressed his support for the app and said he would work to limit liability for companies that helped it keep running. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order seeking to pause the ban on TikTok for 75 days.

As of Tuesday, TikTok wasn't yet back in Apple or Google's US app stores. However, users with the app already downloaded on their phones can access the platform, and some advertisers have restarted campaigns.

Jon Molina, senior director at the digital ad agency Brainlabs, told BI on Tuesday that Brainlabs had recommended that its teams resume their TikTok activity.

"As it stands, the stay on the ban that was signed yesterday is sufficient evidence that there is still opportunity on the platform from a marketing perspective," Molina said, though he added that "anything can change within the blink of an eye."

Some other agencies are taking a more cautious approach. Assembly's EVP of brand experience, Toni Box, said the agency was in the process of pulling social media and behavioral trend data to gauge whether there were any lingering issues that might hamper users' trust and readoption of TikTok. Santini added that Assembly's TikTok rep had also warned them that the TikTok ads manager could take some time to stabilize fully.

Meta and Google are most likely to reap the benefits of any long-term damage to TikTok

Analysts had previously said that Meta and Google would likely be the biggest beneficiaries of a TikTok ban, with an estimated $10 billion of TikTok's US ad revenue up for the taking.

In a research note published January 15, Morgan Stanley analysts said platforms like Snap, Pinterest, and Roblox would also likely gain near-term benefits. The analysts added that those platforms would need to improve their performance and scalability and deliver a healthy relative return on ad spend for any TikTok disruption to pay off for them in the long run.

See the 2-pager Pinterest sent to advertisers in recent days below: