World renowned soft drink maker Coca-Cola decided to join Tumblr right before the new year and is wasting no time in putting its newly created presence on the microblogging platform to good use. With leading digital advertising agency 360i behind the design and managing the community, the company went all in to create what is more than your ordinary Tumblr page but what looks to be a finely crafted social media marketing campaign.
Coca-Cola’s new program is built around a Tumblr blog called “Happiness Is,” an initiative designed to engage teen users. From the page, the company is sharing Coke-branded content such as photos and clips of previous advertisements, but says it plans to get more interactive by including content from young bloggers. According to Coca-Cola Senior Integrated Communications Manager Lisa Roebuck, the blogger material the global brand is considering incorporating may range from user-generated content to trending topics in the world of pop culture.
Recognizing Potential in Tumblr
Tumblr doesn’t get a lot of attention in the social arena with Facebook and Twitter hogging the spotlight. It also has less visibility than social bookmarking sites like Reddit and StumbleUpon. Recently, however, the platform has been getting more play from big brands outside of the internet, publishing and fashion industries. With the Happiness Is campaign, Coke joins Huggies as the only consumer packaged goods (CPG) company to establish a presence on Tumblr. These two brands are likely to have more company in the very near future.
Officially launched in November of 2007, Tumblr is the vision of David Karp, a young programmer, founder and CEO of the company. Thanks to the addition of features such as the ability to follow other members, like content and blog posts, coupled with millions in funding from big name venture capital groups, the site has been able to build a huge following over the years. In the summer of 2011, Tumblr surpassed blogging giant WordPress in having the most blogs hosted: over 20 million. It has nearly 40 million hosted as of January 2012.
Brands seeking a model of how to execute a social media marketing strategy via Tumblr do not need to look any further than Coca-Cola. Just about every social tool has a little something to offer, but this particular network fit Coke’s initiative by serving up its target audience in the form of 11 million-plus teenage bloggers. It looks like there is more to come as the site is said to be attracting roughly 25,000 new users per day and retaining them at a rate much higher than Twitter. Coke is playing its part to near perfection, enabling teen users to take advantage of the tools that make Tumblr tick, and in the process build a community around “Happiness Is.”
Excelling in the Social Space
Coca-Cola is truly excelling in the social media arena, and doing it from multiple angles. The company currently operates a Facebook page with 37 million fans, and has around 420,000 followers on Twitter. It has also created a strong impact with its presence on YouTube, the proud owner of popular content with nearly 50 million views. While the Coke brand seems to be just as strong and recognizable as any these days, 360i appears to be playing a major role in its social media success. The Tumblr campaign certainly was not the first time the two teamed up as the New York-based agency also manages Coca-Cola’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube presence in North America.
Will Coke be able to duplicate the success it has had with these social outlets on the emerging Tumblr? That remains to be seen, but it is definitely off to a great start.
