2. HISTORY OF TUMBLR ADVERTISING
In Spring 2013, Yahoo bought Tumblr. Yahoo’s
great size and influence brought more capital to
the social media site than ever before.
Since, Tumblr has established a new blog called
Marketr that aims to help brands “establish an
identity” on the website (Eaton, 2013).
2014: Tumblr Sponsored Posts released.
Through Yahoo advertising, businesses can have
professionals help tailor their ads for the Tumblr
audience.
Advertisers only pay for “Reblogs, Likes, follows,
or clicks made directly from the Sponsored Post
itself (Tumblr, 2014).
3. CURRENT BRANDS ON TUMBLR
60% of users who’ve seen
Sponsored Posts find the
content fun, engaging, and
high quality.
70% of consumers perceive
a brand more favorably
after seeing a Sponsored
Post.
50% of users who saw
Sponsored Posts
researched the sponsor
afterward. (Tumblr, 2014).
http://brands.tumblr.com Statistics
4. TARGET AUDIENCE
Tumblr’s primary group of users and target
demographic are those between the ages of 16
and 24.
Cooper Smith, journalist for Business Insider,
reports that Tumblr caters to “teens and young
adults interested in self-expression.”
Businesses that have a similar target market of
young consumers will be exposed the proper
demographic.
The graph featured in the following slide
demonstrates that among 13-25 year olds,
Tumblr reigns as the social media website that
garners the most use.
6. RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
Social Media Manager with a good knowledge of
current youth culture and trends to ensure the
company is pushing out relevant information.
Media team to take pictures and videos of
product/brand lifestyle to share on the page.
Since the Tumblr target market is fairly young
and artistic adults and teenagers, the company
advertising must use quality equipment for
shooting photos as well as a good knowledge of
current trends in visual organization.
7. BEST-SUITED CLASSES
Photography: Tumblr is, by and large, a visual
website. A great majority of the posts are images.
Clothing and technology: both very important to
Tumblr’s target market have the ability to
showcase aspects of their products to users,
something that services cannot do as well.
Music: The website is also well-suited to
musicians. If one popular Tumblr user reblogs a
song they like, their followers are likely to listen,
share, and increase exposure for the music.
8. EXEMPLARY EXAMPLE
Fashion manufacturer J.Crew teamed up with
YouTube filmmaker Casey Neistat to advertise
its Ludlow Traveler suit.
Through Tumblr and one YouTube video, Neistat
takes the suit through a number of different
adventurous circumstances to demonstrate the
wrinkle-proof fabric it offers.
Neistat went surfing, motorcycling,
snowboarding, and even rollerskating through an
airplane over an eight-city trip around the
United States and Mexico
9. EXEMPLARY EXAMPLE, CONTINUED.
J.Crew uses posts like this to give followers a
look into their high-end product.
Using a prominent YouTube personality to
Tumblr’s young demographic draws the users in
and shows them the kind of lifestyle fans of
J.Crew admire.
A quick glance through J.Crew’s blog posts shows
a behind-the-scenes look at photoshoots and the
inner-workings of the fashion house that draws
consumers in.
The following slide gives a teaser trailer at the
upcoming documentary based on this advertising
the company has done.
11. LIMITATIONS
One major limitation of Tumblr is also one of its
strengths: its young target market. This makes it
fairly difficult for more expensive brands that
young people cannot afford.
Brands marketed toward older adults will not
have as much exposure as those for younger
adults and teenagers since there is a smaller
presence on the website.
In addition, Tumblr does not have a way of
advertising that “jumps out” at the user. It is
well-integrated into the user interface, simply
showing up in the feed of posts.
12. PROJECTED SUSTAINABILITY
Unfortunately, there may not be much long-term
sustainability. Not only is Yahoo’s growth waning,
but also Tumblrs’ as well.
Tumblr was purchased for $990 million when the
website was rapidly increasing in users and traffic.
Unique visitors have “plateaued abruptly” after a
period of exponential growth.
If Yahoo cannot increase the number of users and
move into maintaining a maturity phase, it might see
Tumblr decline much too far to bring back.
As a result, advertising and business investments
into the Ad Sponsoring venture and organizations’
presence on these websites may prove useless and
wasteful.
13. REFERENCES
Bercovici, J. (2014). Yahoo’s next problem: Tumblr’s traffic isn’t growing.
Forbes. Retrieved on 23 March 2014, from:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2014/01/21/yahoos-next-problem-
tumblrs-traffic-isnt-growing/
Eaton, K. (2013). With “Marketr” blog, Tumblr tells brands how to appeal to
users. Fast Company. Retrieved on 20 March 2014, from:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3015440/fast-feed/with-new-marketr-blog-tumblr-
tells-brands-how-to-appeal-to-users
Eloqua. (2012). Should your business buy Tumblr ads? The Marketing Blog.
Retrieved on 23 March 2014, from: http://blog.eloqua.com/should-your-
business-buy-tumblr-ads/
J.Crew. (2014, March 19). Travel with style: A movie by Casey Neistat [Blog
post]. Retrieved on 23 March 2014, from:
http://jcrew.tumblr.com/post/80088172196/by-the-numbers-when-casey-neistat-
took-our-new
Neistat, C. [jcrew]. (2014, March 19). Travel with style [Video file].
Smith, C. (2013). Tumblr offers advertisements a major advantage: Young
users, who spend tons of time on the site. Business Insider. Retrieved on 20
March 2014, from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaWxrZBsnUo
http://www.businessinsider.com/tumblr-and-social-media-demographics-2013-
12
Tumblr. (2014). Marketr. Tumblr: Brand and Sales Strategy. Retrieved on
March 20, 2014, from:
http://marketr.tumblr.com/post/72590641773/introducing-tumblr-sponsored-
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