Thursday, September 17, 2015

Nescafé shifts focus to Tumblr


17 September 2015
GENEVA: Nescafé, the instant coffee brand owned by Swiss FMCG giant Nestlé, is dumping its traditional website in favour of Tumblr, the microblogging and social media platform that is popular with younger consumers.

In a move that Nescafé claims is a first for a global brand, the company is aiming to build stronger relationships with consumers, especially millennials, as well as boosting ecommerce sales.

Michael Chrisment, global head of integrated marketing at Nescafé, told Marketing Week that Tumblr has "higher organic reach among millennials" and that its customers expect Nescafé to "share more and be more open".

"As Tumblr is traditionally a blog platform, it's very much tied to co-creation and user generated content, which is the main reason we are moving there," he explained.

A major attraction for Nescafé is that it will be able to engage directly with its consumers and take part in conversations among coffee enthusiasts using Tumblr.

According to recent estimates from Statista, the statistics portal, Tumblr has 230m active users and, with its bid to reach this audience, Nescafé is making a clear shift towards the more informal marketing on social media.

However, the company will continue to be active on other social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, and has no plans to stop using traditional marketing platforms, such as TV, radio and outdoor.

"We are moving away from our traditional marketing strategy towards something that's more natural by leveraging owned media, looking to consumers on earned platforms and then amplifying this with paid media," Chrisment said.

In addition to improving its engagement with consumers, Nescafé also hopes the move to Tumblr will drive up ecommerce sales.

"Tumblr brings a lot of mobile advantages, but it also produces a lot of benefits in terms of people being able to buy our products online and being connected," he said.