Tumblr recently announced an interesting partnership with camera manufacturer Olympus.  When I say interesting, I really mean GENIUS.

Take a look at the email below that was received by several of the top Tumblr users:

If you haven’t seen the Olympus PEN yet, it’s a DSLR/compact point-and-shoot hybrid.  The idea is to give you the portability of a point and shoot while giving you the benefits of a full size DSLR at the same time.  Here it is:

Tumblr is a social media site that thrives on photography.  Many independent journalists and photographers use the platform to showcase their work, and some of them have thousands and thousands of followers.  Obviously, Olympus hopes to capitalize on that fact.

Sure, it’s smart to send a camera to influential photographers so that your camera gets a some publicity, but that’s not what makes this campaign so genius.

One of the most difficult things to do in marketing is trying to specifically target the influencers in your field.  Olympus realized that Tumblr has already done this for them.  If you want to know who is influencing photography today, all you have to do is take a look at the Photography Spotlight within Tumblr.  There, you’ll find established photographers alongside up-and-comers that show real talent.  These people take amazing photos, and thousands of people want to emulate them by finding out what techniques they used and what equipment they work with.  Now, Olympus has their personal contact information.

You can bet that Olympus will do everything they can to turn these influencers into raving fans for their cameras by sending them marketing pieces, invites to events, and freebies.  They’ll also find out where they live, what age group they belong to, and other places they hang out online to try and identify others just like them.  It’s an enormous opportunity and a fantastic utilization of social media.