Tumblr Now Scanning User-Posted Images For Brands
By Brianna Ahearn, contributing writer
Once considered a blog site for Generation Y, Tumblr has emerged as a powerful option for engagement for brands. Tumblr currently boasts 200.6 million blogs and has millions of users. Mashable reports 130 million photos are posted each day to the micro-blogging website, and brands are slowly starting to embrace Tumblr for its extreme marketing potential. Last week, Mashable reported Tumblr completed a deal with Ditto Labs to analyze photos for brand data. Ditto Labs regularly performs the service on Twitter and Instagram, by using their proprietary visual recognition system that discovers photos with brand imagery.
The image scanning ability will let brands unlock how Tumblr users are engaging with them. Ditto Labs will provide the data, but Tumblr executives say not to expect targeted advertising on Tumblr just yet. “Right now, we're not planning to do anything ad-related,” says T.R. Newcomb, Tumblr's head of business development. Instead a brand can see how consumers are discussing them, and to what extent. For example, if a college student were to take a photograph that featured a can of Red Bull, Red Bull would be able to see data regarding the photo, including when it was taken, in what environment, whether there were people in the photo, etc. If a brand curious to how its products are being perceived on the blog site, Ditto can search through images to retrieve this information, but only on photos posted publicly.
“Those are very interesting to companies that sell the product because they can see how the product is actually being used in the wild,” says David Rose, Ditto's CEO. “We don’t do any analysis of private photos so this is really about photos in the public domain that people have voluntarily opted into sharing,” says Rose.
Tumblr was purchased by Yahoo last year, and has been increasing its monetizing efforts in recent months. Looking at the number of users posting on Tumblr each month, it's no wonder businesses have been turning to advertisements on the website. With Tumblr, the focus is on a brand's “story.” The company currently offers Sponsored Web Posts and Sponsored Mobile Posts, but also Sponsored Radar, where certain posts can be “highlighted” to all Tumblr users. Radar generally earns around 120 million daily impressions, according to Tumblr. The website also offers Sponsored Spotlight and Sponsored Trending Blogs. With the information gleaned from Ditto's scanning, any brand looking to enhance consumer engagement on Tumblr. One of the benefits Tumblr touts to brands is the longevity of engagement, since 30% of engagement arrives 30 days later after the initial post. As Ditto begins sifting through Tumblr's millions of photographs, time will tell about the power of the service. Tumblr's used by many popular brands, including Ebay and Target. As brands begin to interpret the data presented to them by Ditto Labs, they can establish or adjust their brand presence on Tumblr as required.