It’s easy to be critical of this deal. Yahoo, after all, is the company that previously ruined Flickr, Delicious and GeoCities – all  internet darlings of their time. And Tumblr, for all its traffic and demographic appeal,was simply running out of runway and had no option but to accept.

Recap

However, the deal is done – so let’s look at what this could mean for brands.

Tumblr attracts 300 million unique monthly users, who created 75 million pieces of content between them each month. It is a platform for content creation and self expression – a creative canvas, as Karp calls it. Yahoo has promised not to mess this up, but of course only time will tell…

David Karp will remain as CEO and Tumblr will operate as a stand-alone business. Furthermore, it will continue with its existing operations, personal and roadmap. Yahoo will help accelerate growth and no doubt fund the current gap between income and expenses.

What will this mean for brands?

Tumblr has been a tricky sell for brands.  Firstly, there is the issue with its content: a large proportion of the content is simply inappropriate for brands to associate themselves with. Secondly, the users are very vocal against advertising. And lastly, it requires a tremendous amount of effort and investment to create content, build an audience and keep it engaged long term. Tumblr currently lacks a sound model for brands to invest in.

And that’s where this deal could make a difference.

Professionalising and scaling the advertising model

Tumblr so far has relied on a relatively small number of high level investments. Yahoo brings with it a wealth of experience in both monetising eyeballs and working with large brands and agencies. Professionalising the current advertising model and offering advertisers scalable solutions will make it easier for brands to start experimenting.

The success of these efforts will be determined by Karp’s and Yahoo’s ability to find a way to monetise the platform without driving away its audience.

Integration of Paid, Owned and Earned media

Tumblr will help Yahoo get a better understanding of an audience it has largely no clue about – 18 to 24 year olds. This better understanding will help them with content creation, targeting the right audience and syndication across its network. In turn, this will provide advertisers with a one-stop shop for their paid, owned and earned media needs. A brand’s Tumblr will be the central hub within the network (owned), the users will decide what they like through reblogs (earned) and the well performing content can be given a boost throughout the rest of the network (paid). Similarly, paid advertising can ensure content finds the right audience increasing the chance of further spread.

Search

Tumblr’s current search facilities are pretty basic. The addition of Yahoo’s search technology (stop laughing!) could make it easier to navigate the platform and find relevant content. Whilst many brands still struggle with the creation of unique and interesting content, many have mastered the skills required to be found by a search engine – which increase their chance of their content being found by the right audience.

Conclusion

Yahoo! has a lot to offer Tumblr. Of course, many others such as Facebook could have offered similar improvements, but that’s a moot point. Ultimately, it’s about Tumblr growing up and becoming a platform enabling advertisers to reach out and engage a difficult to reach target audience. And Yahoo! can help them get there.

And when they do, the brands will follow.