March 19, 2018
Q&A with Evan Minskoff, Head of Marketing at Tumblr
At our third #StraightTalk event we welcomed Evan Minskoff, Head of Marketing at Tumblr, and Bryan Tucker, Co-Founder of The Kicker and Head Writer at Saturday Night Live, to discuss content and culture with CBX’s CMO, Dustin Longstreth. Before we kicked off the evening, we grabbed each of them for a quick-fire “Q&A With.” See our first session with Bryan here.
As Head of Marketing at Tumblr, Evan Minskoff focuses on transforming insights into growth marketing that lifts mobile daily active users, revenue, and brand equity scores. With an impressive résumé under his belt, Evan’s background includes a number of senior marketing roles at top brands including Gilt Group, About.com, and Disney, as well as OvationTV where he served as SVP, Head of Marketing.
Being one of the most popular social media platforms out there today, Tumblr is a space for members to express themselves and connect with likeminded individuals who share similar passions and interests. But how can brands get involved in such a user-to-user based platform? Evan explains that the key is knowing their audience on a personal level, and keep the organic conversation flowing.
1. Tell us about Tumblr’s brand mission.
Evan: Tumblr is where your interests connect you to your people. The world’s most important passion-based conversations happen on Tumblr to the tune of a million a day from those who love Cosplay to super heroes to social justice or anything else- people are coming here to connect over the things they love. And that’s been our mission for a long time and we’re committed to that.
2. What brands do you believe are using social media really well these days specifically Tumblr?
Evan: All social media isn’t created equal. As it pertains to Tumblr, the brands that are using social media are those that help facilitate passion-based conversations. For example, Jolly Ranchers did a wonderful campaign during finals called “Keep On Sucking,” where they created content native to the platform that allowed students to express their frustrations and elations about finals. It was less about their product and more so facilitating conversations around studying. The brands who really understand their consumers and how they interact with their products in order to facilitate relevant conversations around that engagement are the ones succeeding.
3. What are the ways in which users are interacting with Tumblr that excites you the most?
Evan: What’s most exciting to me is members are using Tumblr to express themselves in an incredible array of ways about the things they are passionate about most. Whether it’s their love of social justice and raising women’s voices or advocating for LGBT rights, or its their love of Riverdale and crafting storylines around the characters that the writers had never even intended, they’re all showcasing and carrying their passions on Tumblr. Members are connecting with different people and POV’s with the same loves and in the process, they’re figuring out who they are and who they want to be.
4. What are the opportunities brands should be looking into in social media to bring them closer to their users?
Evan: On Tumblr, it’s less about a message about buying or selling stuff and more so about getting to know their users, what they’re passionate about, how they live their lives and figuring out how their brands can be used in ways that help people self-express. It’s really about understanding how to fan the flames of conversations.
5. What most excites you about technology?
Evan: I think a more open democratic world has to be the answer. People are using technology to connect with each other on the things they love and their shared interests in ways that’s weren’t possible before. Bringing people from diverse points of views and backgrounds closer together is probably one of the best values that technology can offer.
