As the old saying goes, one man’s Twitter is another man’s Tumblr. Or something like that.

On the same day that Elon Musk struck a deal to buy Twitter, Tumblr saw a 19% increase in new user signups relative to average daily user signups, a Tumblr spokesperson told Marketing Brew after its CEO Matt Mullenweg tweeted about the bump.

But one could argue Tumblr has been making its return to the zeitgeist for months now. Vogue proclaimed the “2014 Tumblr Girl Is Back” in January. Advertisers seem to be taking more interest in the platform: Direct ad sales rose 230% year over year in Q4 of last year, although Tumblr didn’t share exact figures, according to Adweek.

And at men’s grooming company Manscaped, marketers told us they’ve been bullish on Tumblr for months now, executing both a paid and organic strategy on the platform.

Tumblin’ into Tumblr

Tyler Wentworth, Manscaped’s director of social media, told us via email that Gen Z is a “core segment of [the brand’s] most avid fans and followers,” adding that they’re a significant and growing demographic within the brand’s customer base.

• Roughly half of Tumblr’s users are Gen Z—last year, the company told the Wall Street Journal that more than 48% of its users fall within that demo. Tumblr didn’t share user figures with Marketing Brew, but Similarweb says its site gets around 300 million visitors per month.

“We first tested Tumblr in late 2020, but at that time they were still building out their ad capabilities and we didn’t see strong enough performance to continue testing,” Jenny Broekemeier, senior manager of paid social at Manscaped, told us over email.

By the numbers: But that’s no longer the case, according to Broekemeier. She explained that when Manscaped began retesting paid ads in 2022, she saw a drastic improvement: This year, she said Manscaped has spent 50% fewer ad dollars on Tumblr than it did in 2020…and drove 524% more revenue. “We consistently see a lot of engagement on our ads, especially reblogs, that help our content to get additional earned reach,” Broekemeier continued.

Click here to read about Manscaped’s organic strategy on Tumblr.—PB

Brands looking to break into podcast advertising don’t necessarily have to shell out $1 million for an ad read from Joe Rogan.

Ossa Collective, a podcast marketplace that connects brands with women and non-binary podcasters, is crowdfunding money to continue building tools that help hosts monetize their shows. Ossa co-founder and CEO Marla Isackson told Marketing Brew that one of these tools will help automate ad buying, as podcast companies big and small increasingly look to incorporate tech into an industry that’s historically relied on direct sales of host-read ads.

• Zoom in: Podcasters in the Ossa community are mostly nano- and micro-influencers, Isackson said, like Emily Coffman, athlete and host of the podcast Live Your Personal Best. But between 1,400 of them, they reach 12.7 million monthly listeners, Ossa said in a statement. Brands using Ossa have included haircare brand Cantu, clothing brand Faherty, and skincare brand Foreo.

VC you later

Instead of turning to investors to fund its efforts, Ossa started a crowdfunding campaign last month, aiming to raise $1 million from any interested contributors, with a minimum investment of $200. Within three weeks of its rollout, Ossa had racked up more than $70,000.

“We really felt if we could have our stakeholders and shareholders and entities feel this strong connection to Ossa, then we’d be able to achieve our goals,” Isackson said. “It’s all about just collectively having everyone feel like they’re owning a piece of the pie.”

Building blocks: The money will be used in part to power the development of an app, with a variety of features rolling out between now and the end of the year, according to Isackson.

• One such feature is a “faux programmatic” platform that will let advertisers input information such as their budgets and key demographics, Isackson explained, then be presented with a list of podcasters who might be good fits for their campaign.

Read about other features Ossa is rolling out here.—AM

Roughly three days after confirmation that the Supreme Court will likely strike down Roe v. Wade, according to a draft opinion, corporate America has so far been mostly silent.

Major corporations like Walmart, American Airlines, and Disney (currently embroiled in a different political turmoil), have yet to issue statements or responses, while the Business Roundtable, a trade body representing CEOs, said it “does not have a position on this issue,” reported CNBC.

The three biggest tech companies have also been quiet:

• Meta hasn’t said anything, though chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote on her personal Facebook page that, “If the leaked draft opinion becomes the law of the land, one of our most fundamental rights will be taken away.”
• Google declined to respond to Marketing Brew’s email about a statement.
• Amazon hasn’t commented, but hours before the news broke, it announced that it would reimburse employees (though only those on the company’s insurance) for travel related to “non-life threatening medical treatments including abortions,” according to Reuters, up to $4,000. Other companies, like Citigroup and Yelp, have announced similar policies in response to laws restricting access to abortion in recent months.

Some have spoken out: Ben & Jerry’s, known for taking public stances on political issues, tweeted, “History has shown that no law or court can end abortion, they can only end safe and accessible abortion,” in a thread commenting on the decision. OkCupid, Yelp, and Parade also released statements in support of reproductive rights.

Meanwhile, in ad tech: This week, Vice’s Motherboard reported that the data broker SafeGraph was selling the location data of people who had visited Planned Parenthood and other family planning centers. Motherboard was able to purchase a week’s worth of Planned Parenthood data for just $160. Though SafeGraph’s data is aggregated, researchers consistently say that with just a few data points, individuals can often be identified easily.

After the story was published, SafeGraph said it would no longer sell data related to Planned Parenthood and other family-planning facilities, and that the data it does sell to advertisers is mostly used for “ad assets” like more efficient billboards .—RB

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

The Circle: Not the Netflix reality show. Twitter announced that it’s testing a new feature called “Twitter Circle” that lets users tweet to a smaller squad.

Optimize: A primer on keyword density and why it matters.

NFTs: Ape holders can use multiple slurp juices on a single ape.

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A new Morning Consult/Politico survey conducted in the wake of the news that the Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade sheds some light on the role people want brands to play in the conversation about abortion access.

As is the case with many other social and political issues, the results of the survey, which includes responses from 1,995 registered US voters, indicate it’s likely some will be displeased no matter what corporations do—or don’t do—to respond.

• Say something: About half (51%) of registered voters said they strongly or somewhat want brands to speak out on abortion, including fairly even shares of men and women. Roughly one-third (34%) of voters said they strongly or somewhat don’t want brands to wade into the abortion discussion.
• Party lines: About three-quarters of Democrats (76%) said they strongly or somewhat want companies to speak out, while 12% of that group said the opposite. Among Republicans, 59% said they strongly or somewhat don’t think brands should take a stand, while 27% said the opposite, a smaller polarization than among Democrats.

+1: Gen Z expressed the strongest support for corporate action on abortion access of the generation demorgaphics, with 72% of registered voters in that demo saying they strongly or somewhat support brands speaking out.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• A crackdown on streaming service password-sharing is coming
• Mood Board: How TBWA dreamed up different multiverses for DirecTV’s latest campaign
• Here’s the biggest NewFronts news so far