Tumblr has launched a new initiative that pairs artists with brands, as the Yahoo-owned blogging platform looks to further monetise its 420 million monthly unique visitors. The new ‘Creatrs Network’ will operate as a creative agency that connects content curators with leading brands Tumblr currently houses over 220 million blogs, ranging from fashion to colorful […]
Tumblr has launched a new initiative that pairs artists with brands, as the Yahoo-owned blogging platform looks to further monetise its 420 million monthly unique visitors.
The new ‘Creatrs Network’ will operate as a creative agency that connects content curators with leading brands
Tumblr currently houses over 220 million blogs, ranging from fashion to colorful images of cats.
Creatrs for Tumblr will begin with an initial pool of 300 artists and makers carefully selected from within the site’s network.
The collective group of dedicated content-producers are invited to work on Tumblr’s causes centered on the worlds of non-profit, arts and education, advertising and media.
In an event hosted at the company’s New York Headquarters, Head of Creative Strategy David Hayes described the program as a powerful way to empower their best builders and makers, as well as bridge the gap between URL and IRL (“in real life”).
How Creatrs works
Hayes described it as Tumblr’s first attempt to “create a formal structure” to pair the platform’s massive audience of artists, photographers, and other creatives with brands for advertising campaigns.
For example a brand like Unilever’s Axe can now tell Tumblr it would like to buy a sponsored ad.
Tumblr will then select from an initial pool of 300 people within its Creatrs Network to find that brand whatever kind of creative work they might be looking for: This could be a popular GIF maker, a high-fashion photographer, or a skilled videographer.
The content can then live on Tumblr as a sponsored post, as well as on parent company Yahoo’s various publishing properties.
“We pay all of our artists,” says Hayes. “We’ve paid over a quarter of a million dollars in the half-year of tests.” Among those was artist Cindy Suen, who does colorful and intricate animated illustrations of factories, cities, and hamburgers. Tumblr served as the middle man, and last year paired her with a campaign for the teen-horror Ouijamovie to develop stuff like this.
https://www.tumblr.com/creatrs
