ADVERTISING TRENDS

Lindsey BrooksMKT241

20 March 2014

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).

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

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.

BUSINESS INSIDER: TUMBLR DEMOGRAPHICS

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.

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.

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

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.

EXEMPLARY EXAMPLE: MEDIA

Click Me.

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.

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.

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-posts-powered-by