Dive Brief:

• Target has announced partnerships with popular pinners on Pinterest. The designers, who also run design blogs, are developing exclusive party-planning lines that will be available on Target’s site and in stores, the company revealed Monday.

• A Pinterest spokesperson hailed the move, saying that Target’s tapping of “everyday pinners” shows that the site inspires people to find and share things they love and do something with that.

• The effort debuts March 16 with a party decorating line by Joy Cho, whose blog “Oh Joy!” boasts more than 13.6 million Pinterest followers, compared to Target’s less than 150,000.

Dive Insight:

Retailers have heard plenty about using sites like Pinterest to connect with customers, but Target has taken things up a notch by tapping popular “pinners” to design products for them. The move is reminiscent of the retailer’s early collaboration with top fashion designers, something that some observers at the time doubted would succeed. It not only did succeed, but started a trend among other downscale retailers like J.C. Penney, and this too seems destined for a win. After all, Joy Cho, the design blogger who will be first in Target’s Pinterest experiment, has about 90 times the Pinterest followers of Target. Pin that!