Tumblr Surging as Content Publishers Adopt Channel

Tumblr seems to be on track as older demographics adopt

My Tumblr Stream

Back in March, I wrote a post about Twitter versus Tumblr. I predicted that Tumblr might very well surpass Twitter as the next big thing. Now, that hasn’t happened yet, but Tumblr is evolving nicely. We’ve seen the demographics shift from an audience of more than 40% under 24 to an even spread across the demographic spectrum.

Tumblr Demographics via Microsoft Ad Networks

If you haven’t checked out Tumblr, you really must give it a shot. Tumblr is very similar to Posterous.com, which is generating about half as much traffic as Tumblr (according to Compete.com). Posterous skews much older demographically, but Tumblr’s demographic diversity shows an exciting shift in their overall user base.

Tumblr pushes through the gestation phase

Tumblr New Media Life Cycle Analysis

As Tumblr evolves and its demographics shift, it’s more well positioned to move into the escalation phase. We use Compete.com for our traffic information source. However, at a recent conference, the founder of Tumblr revealed their traffic numbers to be more than ten times what Compete is reporting. If this is the case, Tumblr is most certainly nearing the escalation phase, and it’s more than well positioned to see what we call a ‘celebrity hit.’

A celebrity hit is one of the criteria any new media channel needs in order to actually see the explosive “overnight success” where user adoption skyrockets. There are plenty of big brands (IBM, EMI Music and Universal Music) experimenting still on Tumblr, and we predict that very soon one of them will break through the clutter and cause a stir that drives new user adoption.

Pick a niche and create collaborative content

IBM's SmarterCities on Tumblr

IBM has done a great job of unleashing the power of Tumblr. Along with their massive media buy to promote their technological approach to building more technology-driven smart cities, IBM’s agency is using Tumblr to invite users to submit smarter city ideas directly to their Tumblr site.

This is a really clever and open way to create and curate user generated content for a very specific concept, and it’s well executed. However, it seems to be a little stale. That being said, it’s exactly the type of concept that could provide Tumblr with the celebrity hit that it needs.

Can you be the celebrity hit?

Diversified Distribution Portfolio - Gestation Phase

If you’ve already been spending time and energy developing your Tumblr skills in the gestation phase of the channel’s life cycle, you should step up your efforts with a focused and high-quality approach. As Tumblr nears the peak of gestation, you could be the big hit that garners mass media attention! To be successful here you’ll need to make sure you have a core audience of active Tumblr users interested in your content.

Let us know if you’ve got something you’re interested in promoting as a great use of Tumblr’s feature set. We want to see Tumblr move forward rapidly.

About The New Media Life Cycle Analysis

The New Media Life Cycle Analysis is the brainchild of the Tippingpoint Labs strategy team. Each week, our team takes a look at a new media channel and presents its findings here, to help chief marketing officers, directors of marketing, and social media experts add some context to their social media and content marketing strategies. If there is a new platform or channel you’d like to see us evaluate, please let us know. We’re more than eager to take a look!

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."