With the TikTok ban looming in early 2025, Tumblr was not part of the conversation. New platforms like BlueSky, as well as old platforms like Twitter and Instagram were dominating the conversation, and taking advantage of the moment to recruit new users. As one of the original social media platforms, and one that has always championed the better version of what social media was meant to be (i.e. community and connection) Tumblr was missing out on a huge opportunity.
Rival proactively brought them an idea for how to capitalize on this moment and re-enter the conversation. Long known for its passionate, self-organized communities, Tumblr has historically been a place where culture is made collaboratively rather than optimized for virality. The challenge was to clarify and activate this difference in a way that felt timely, relevant, and culturally fluent during a moment of widespread platform uncertainty. Rather than chasing displaced TikTok users with functional parity, the opportunity was to articulate what Tumblr uniquely offers - and why that matters now more than ever.
We anchored Tumblr’s response around a simple, culturally resonant positioning: “Tumblr communities create culture together.” Instead of presenting Tumblr as an alternative feed or replacement app, the idea reframed the platform as a collective creative space - one where individuality, fandom, identity, and creativity are shaped collaboratively over time.
This positioning allowed Tumblr to show up in the TikTok ban conversation not as a substitute, but as a creative home. The campaign celebrated the micro-communities that make Tumblr distinctive, spotlighting the shared rituals, humor, aesthetics, and values that emerge when users build culture together rather than perform for an algorithm. The work embraced plurality over polish and authenticity over optimization, reinforcing Tumblr’s role as a platform where culture isn’t consumed - it’s co-created.
Our core insight was that moments of platform disruption create not just migration, but reflection. As users questioned where they belonged next, they were also questioning how they wanted to participate online. Many creators and users were increasingly fatigued by performative trends, algorithmic pressure, and homogenized content.
Strategically, we leaned into Tumblr’s strength as an ecosystem of interconnected micro-communities rather than a monolithic feed. By elevating the creativity that already thrives on the platform, we positioned Tumblr as culturally additive - not competitive. The strategy centered on intentional diversity: showcasing different communities, aesthetics, and voices to reflect Tumblr’s breadth while reinforcing a shared ethos of collaboration, self-expression, and creative freedom.
The campaign was built as a multi-channel, culturally responsive system designed to move quickly as the TikTok ban conversation gained momentum. We developed three distinct but interconnected creative concepts, each rooted in real Tumblr communities and expressed through a tone that felt organic to the platform - expressive, weird, self-aware, and unapologetically niche.
Execution spanned multiple touchpoints, allowing each concept to work independently while reinforcing the larger narrative of collective culture-making. Visuals and copy drew directly from the language, humor, and aesthetics of Tumblr’s micro-communities, ensuring the work felt native rather than imposed. Together, the executions formed a cohesive ecosystem that invited both existing users and newcomers to see Tumblr not just as a platform, but as a creative culture they could actively participate in.
By leading with culture instead of competition, Tumblr was able to meaningfully enter a high-noise conversation with a point of view that stood apart. The campaign reinforced Tumblr’s identity among existing users while introducing new audiences to the platform’s collaborative creative spirit.
Rather than chasing short-term migration, the work strengthened long-term brand clarity - positioning Tumblr as a place where creativity thrives through community. The campaign demonstrated how a clear, culturally led positioning can enable fast, relevant responses to moments of disruption while staying true to a platform’s core values.
Our campaign drove:
