Case Study: Making Tumblr a Great Buy for Brands in Europe

Project: Launching Tumblr’s Creatr product in Europe.

• My Role: Project Lead. Hands on work: creative and commercial strategy, ideation lead on projects, stakeholder collaboration, data analysis (social listening), training program co-design, commercial product management, project management.

• Timeline: 2014 - 2017

The Challenge:

Tumblr, a vibrant platform boasting a massive 420 million monthly unique visitors, held immense untapped potential for brands in Europe and the Middle East. While its unique, visually-driven ecosystem thrived with artists – animators, illustrators, and GIF makers whose short-form creations shaped online culture – brands struggled to effectively tap into this dynamic environment. The tension lay in bridging the gap between Tumblr's organic artistic energy and the strategic content needs of advertisers seeking authentic engagement.

Rising Action: Cultivating a Creative Ecosystem

Recognizing Tumblr's core strength, we focused on the platform's thriving community of digital artists with distinctive visual styles. Our approach, inspired by a successful US initiative, centered on empowering these artists and integrating their creativity into brand campaigns. This involved several key phases:

• Identifying and Engaging Talent: Through social listening, we pinpointed influential UK-based digital artists. We then proactively forged relationships, understanding their creative processes and unique aesthetics.

• Developing Go-to-Market Packages: We crafted compelling packages for our sales teams (based off US work), showcasing how brands could leverage artist-created content for impactful campaigns.

• Building Internal Creative Capabilities: We established an in-house social content team. This team collaborated directly with the identified artists, enhancing our offering by combining original, short-form art with the capability to remix existing client assets into engaging Tumblr-native formats. This blended approach provided brands with both fresh, culturally relevant content and a service to adapt their existing marketing materials.

• Educating the Market: A crucial element was demystifying Tumblr for media agencies and their clients. We conducted educational sessions focused on content and advertising strategies tailored for the platform. For instance, a workshop for Amazon Video lead to our first ever UK deal with them.

• Refining Training Resources: We adapted existing US training materials to create relevant and engaging content for various outreach efforts. This included delivering inspiration days for key agencies such as Mindshare University, Mediacom, Publicis, and Vizeum, ensuring a consistent and informative message across the market.

• Raising Tumblr's Profile: We actively collaborated with the marketing team to elevate Tumblr's visibility at industry events. This involved initiatives like workshops for international travel clients in the Faroe Islands, where we engaged with local craftspeople and create content about their work with potential clients. Presenting Tumblr's unique value proposition at industry events like AdWeek further amplified our reach within the advertising community.

• Empowering the Sales Force: Comprehensive training sessions were conducted for both UK and European sales teams, equipping them with the knowledge and resources to effectively promote these new artist-led initiatives to brands.

The Launch and Integration of "Creatrs".

The culmination of these efforts was the successful introduction and adoption of the artist-led content program, mirroring the US "Creatrs" Network concept. This program positioned Tumblr not just as a social media platform, but as a dynamic art-meets-content collective, offering brands direct access to curated user artwork and talented artists for their campaigns.

The key value proposition was the ability to move from campaign ideation to ready-to-publish, high-quality content within a couple of weeks – a significant advantage over traditional, often more time-consuming, creative agency processes. This speed and authenticity resonated strongly with brands seeking timely and culturally relevant content. A strategic element was the requirement for brands to purchase Tumblr native advertising spots alongside the artist-created content, ensuring a symbiotic relationship between organic creativity and platform promotion.

Resolution: Tangible Growth and Market Recognition

The strategic focus on artist-led content programs yielded significant and measurable results:

• Strong Revenue Growth: Social content programs, which started at 0% of the team's revenue in 2014, surged to become a substantial 60% by the end of 2017. This translated to a $6 million business within three years, demonstrating the strong market demand for this unique offering.

• Establishing a Unique Selling Proposition: Artist-influenced programs became our flagship product and a key differentiator in a competitive content marketing landscape. This USP allowed Tumblr to stand out and offer brands a truly unique and culturally relevant approach to their social content strategies.

• Influencing Major Brand Strategies: We successfully executed artist-driven programs for prominent brands like Boots, Unilever, and Kraft, delivering engaging and impactful content. Furthermore, our work significantly influenced the social content strategies of major Yahoo partners, such as Visit Britain and Nationwide, showcasing the broader impact of our approach on their marketing efforts.

Conclusion:

By recognising and strategically leveraging the creative power of Tumblr's artist community, we successfully transformed the platform into a valuable asset for brands in Europe (and the Middle East). The artist-led content program, inspired by the "Creatrs" model, generated significant revenue growth and established Tumblr as a unique and influential player in the content/social marketing space.