Tumblr Expecting To Be Profitable In 2013 After Introducing Mobile Advertising
The Vice President of Tumblr, Derek Gottfried, has announced that the popular microblogging site is expecting to make its first annual profit this year, after extending its web advertising model to mobile devices.Tumblr currently hosts almost 100 million different blogs, both professional and personal, and registers around 15 billion impressions every month, according to statistics corporation Quantcast. Although currently not as popular as its web equivalent, Tumblr’s mobile app is closing the gap, having quadrupled its membership in the last six months.
Gottfried, who has previously expressed his disdain for traditional web advertising, has implemented a different advertising system on Tumblr: companies can pay Tumblr to promote their blogs and blog posts to wider audiences, but it is up to them to make the content original and interesting. The better the content, the more likely it will be that other Tumblr users repost adverts on their own blog or heart it (similar to a Facebook “Like”): the more users interact with the advertising, the wider it will spread.
Advertisers are not able to purchase ad space or use keywords on Tumblr, but the promoted blog post system, which costs just under “just under six figures” a pop according to Tumblr’s head of sales Lee Brown, can be very successful – success which is measured in the number of reposts and hearts posts receive. Brown also emphasised the uniqueness of Tumblr’s ad model:
We’re not bringing them a template or format to complete, we’re giving them a canvas. That takes a lot of time and a lot of thought […] Marketers have become accustomed to buying scale as opposed to earning it. We’re not really selling ads, we’re promoting their content.Companies are advised to advertise on Tumblr subtly, creating content that will spread through the site organically. Coca Cola’s “Happiness Is” Tumblr blog, for example, which features images and gifs similar to those most popular on the site, has promoted Coca Cola without the need for blatant branding.
The advertising model has been so successful and lucrative on the web that it is now being introduced to mobile devices, a move which Brown expects will lead to profits. Tumblr has already tested mobile advertising behind closed doors, tests which thus far have been successful, and is now opening the service up to companies who want to use it.
Have you seen any advertising on Tumblr? Did you like it?
Contact us on Twitter or leave your comments below.Will Sigsworth
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www.socialmediafrontiers.com
Tumblr Expecting To Be Profitable In 2013 After Introducing Mobile Advertising
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Wednesday, March 06, 2013
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Wednesday, March 06, 2013
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