This is a brave step, and the first time ever that an international brand has opted for Tumblr as a platform for a main website.
Nestle has shown that it can adapt to the ever-changing digital world, and if it is successful other major brands could easily follow suit, shaking up the industry and potentially how organisations manage their owned content.
So what are the pros and cons?
On the face of it Tumblr ticks all of the boxes. It’s flexible, simple and responsive and has great search engine optimisation compatibility.
It also has a captive audience as one of the fastest growing social media platforms for the younger audience, interestingly where some other social sites are losing ground.
One of the other benefits for Nescafe is that consumers can now start their online journey on Tumblr and be referred easily to other social media sites, creating flexibility.
Nescafe says that its messages are already being better amplified with Tumblr’s audience.
So is it all good news and we are about to see the death of the traditional website?
Perhaps not just yet; there are still quite a few risks. Moving the entire website to Tumblr could put the Nescafe brand in danger if Tumblr suddenly develops a problem, as Nescafe doesn’t own the site, which you would do with a traditional .com approach.
In terms of audience, Nescafe has said that its messages are already being better amplified with Tumblr’s audience, but this audience is very young.
But is there a risk that Nescafe’s older audience could be alienated by the move? They may struggle with the functionality and Tumblr has less cut-through with people aged 35 plus.
Nescafe may also now struggle to frame some of its corporate story effectively.
Overall it is a brave move by Nescafe, and one that will be watched intently over the next few months by other global brands.
If it works seamlessly then we could easily see other brands follow suit within the next 12 months, which would mark a massive change for the industry.
If it falters (which is possible; remember when some bloggers moved their sites to Google+, which then never became the mainstream social site it was heralded as being?) then there may be a lot of mutterings of ‘I told you so’.
One to watch with interest.
Lisa Elliott is a director at Lansons
Lisa Elliott is a director at Lansons
