While Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer still has some work to do to convince ad buyers that Tumblr should be a central part of their digital marketing mixes, Ms. Mayer may have found a receptive audience among the creative executives gathered in Cannes for the this week’s International Festival of Creativity.
During an expertly delivered keynote event on Tuesday, Ms. Mayer made direct overtures to the hearts of creative executives–who all claim to love doing inspiring work. Again and again, Ms. Mayer hit the theme that Yahoo, particularly Tumblr, wants to be the place to do inspiring, creative, and that Yahoo wants to elevate the creative quality of digital advertising as a whole.
Several times, Ms. Mayer shared anecdotes about her favorite artists, and things she’s learned from their work that can apply to online advertising. For example, she showed how one painter’s work reveals key aspects of his personality–something brands can emulate on Tumblr, she argued. 
“Tumblr is this incredibly powerful platform for brands that is unconstrained by pixel limits,” said Ms. Mayer. “It’s there they can through the power of personality show who they are.”
Among the examples Ms. Mayer shared: a mock digital magazine tied the the “Hunger Games” series of films, a current World Cup-themed Tumblr from Hyundai–becausefutbol.com, a quirky Tumblr for Honey Nut Cheerios centered around the character Buzz the Bee called mustbethehoney.com and a recent Tumblr image for AT&T that Ms. Mayer claimed went viral
“When brands show their true colors, users follow,” said Ms. Mayer. “It’s a dynamic canvas.”
Beyond Tumblr, Ms. Mayer spent much of her keynote looking to excite the creative crowd about the possibilities of native advertising. She again shared some work from a favorite glass artist, whose work comes more to life, Ms. Mayer contended, when placed within real world environments (not unlike native ads).
Ms. Mayer said Yahoo is putting much of its focus on native ads going forward. She even seemed to take a slight dig at traditional banners, which she referred to as “advertisements on the side.”
“It’s not that digital advertising isn’t working–it is,” she said with some hesitancy. But native ads generate far better response and share rates on Yahoo, particularly among Millennials, Yahoo’s research has found. “We are really trying to push industry forward here.
Based on the chatter among the creatives attending Cannes this week, they just might share Ms. Mayer’s ambitions.
“Tumblr has a unique culture of its own,” said Tim Leake, Senior Vice President, Director of Growth and Innovation at RPA Advertising. ”It’s got a lot of potential, but brands need to spend time actively using it to learn how people really behave on the platform.”
Updated: Yahoo announced on Tuesday that it plans to bring Tumblr Sponsored Post ads to Yahoo’s own sites. These ads will feature the same social functions as they do on Tumblr and will be available for purchase through Yahoo Gemini, the company’s programmatic buying platform.
http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/06/17/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-touts-tumblr-to-creatives-in-cannes/
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