“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” said a wise John Lennon, and that was before the dawn of the social media age, which sees us fervently engaging in aspirational living without actually getting out there and doing the things we chat about, or taking ownership of the items we so publicly covet.

Car giant Honda is capitalizing on this phenomenon, and on exploding social site Pinterest, with its new campaign ‘Pintermission’, where it asks five top pinners to take $500, step away from the thumbtacks and have a go at making their pinboard dreams a reality. They’ll have use of the new Honda CR-V to make their adventures that little bit easier, so presumably Honda hopes participants will return from their Pintermission and pin doubly hard about the brand and car.

Speaking to AdAge, Assistant Manager of Social Media at American Honda Motor Co, Lauren Ebner, said: “It’s such a fast-growing social-media network and seemed like a really good, different, creative outlet for us and a chance to use a visual medium to promote our cars.

“We wanted to have the opportunity to put images of our cars on there … as a way to drive people back to our website,” Ebner added. “Most of our images link back to Honda.com, and [users] can find out more about the car that way.”

Indeed, as Pinterest’s popularity grows so do brands’ involvement in the site, and Honda isn’t the only one using it to create awareness. Peugot Panama is running a competition which sees users search the car maker’s social networks to gather pieces of a puzzle and pin them into a completed image to be in with the chance of winning prizes. Car insurance company Confused.com has asked women (Pinterest’s main demographic) to pin pictures of themselves in their most extravagant heels in order to win a pair of folding pumps, and iconic British brand Harrods is asking its followers to create a mood board for their Diamond Jubilee window. The winner will be put up in a swish London hotel in advance of its official unveiling.

It’s still early doors for brands on Pinterest, so these initiatives set a strong precedent for future campaigns. No doubt there’s much potential to be uncovered.