Tumblr’s head of creative strategy, David Hayes, took the stage at the Nextmedia conference on Monday in Toronto to talk about content, collaboration and storytelling.
Ahead of the talk, Marketing sat down with Hayes to talk about Tumblr’s approach to content and get his advice for brands struggling with the pressure to act like a publisher.
Quality matters more than quantity
As brands rush to create 24-hour editorial calendars, Hayes said something’s been lost: quality control.
“When brands talk about content, it’s very fulfillment oriented,” he said. “It’s almost like ordering a bunch of boxes of goods. They rarely think about the downside of pushing out all that content – it will hurt your engagement. Bad content doesn’t give off a good impression for your brand.”
At Tumblr, he said creative has moved to the opposite end of the spectrum. Instead of pushing out as much content as possible, the platform encourages advertisers to work with its stable of content creators to produce work that aspires to the level of commercial art, rather than a quick-hit.
Don’t get caught up in the 24-hour news cycle
“Brands think, ‘We have to be on all the time, we can’t just be on at peak moments.’” Hayes said. “That creates this huge pressure to fill all that air.”
“Right now people think that they need to post more than they do,” he continued. “They also don’t take into consideration the negative effects of posting poor or average content.”
Bad content is going to hurt your brand – period, Hayes said. Instead of getting caught up in what’s trending at any given minute, Hayes said marketers should think about what will work for their brand in the long term – especially on Tumblr, where a third of all engagement comes 30 days after a piece of content is posted.
Choose to sell or entertain – don’t try to do both
“If you want to sell someone something, just sell it,” Hayes said. “Don’t try to mask it or layer it. If you want to entertain, really truly be entertaining. Brands get in trouble when they try to blend it all together.”
Hayes recommended marketers stagger entertaining posts with product-based ones, rather than trying to mix the two. This is the approach Tumblr has recommended to retail clients such as The Gap, Macy’s and Nordstrom.
Some of those retailers’ posts directly advertise an item, along with a link to purchase, but they’re mixed in with behind-the-scenes content from photo shoots and fashion interest stories, providing followers with useful, entertaining content in between the straight-sell posts.
Marketers need to talk about content creation – not content marketing
There’s been a lot of talk in the ad business about why brands need to act as publishers. But, Hayes said, there has not been enough discussion about where content should come from or how to create it.
“I can’t remember the last conference I was at where someone was just speaking about how to find content creators, how much they charge and how to get good content quickly, archive your assets and adapt in real time,” Hayes said.
This gap is the reason Tumblr launched its “Creatrs” network of content creators (Twitter has a similar solution called Niche). While brands are beefing up their content capabilities in house and leaning on their creative agencies for their content needs, social networks are likewise stepping in and offering content from their most popular and creative users.
