Fear and favor are bringing advertisers back to X under Musk

[midian182]

A hot potato: Advertisers who abandoned X en masse following Elon Musk's takeover are returning to the platform. Companies had been concerned about associating with the service and Musk's controversial antics, but it seems his position in the Trump administration is convincing firms to return in the hope there will be political benefits.

In November 2023, IBM suspended its advertising on former X, formerly Twitter, after a report from a media watchdog said one of its ads appeared next to posts that promoted Hitler and the Nazi party.

Apple, Walt Disney, Comcast, Warner Bros, and others also suspended advertising on the platform, leading to a frustrated Musk telling the advertisers to "go f**k yourself" and insisting he didn't want them back. Musk later claimed his profane statement was more of a point highlighting freedom of speech.

Watch my conversation with @ElonMusk: https://t.co/YedkELVhFn

– Andrew Ross Sorkin (@andrewrsorkin) November 29, 2023

Since then, Musk has become a senior advisor to President Trump and found himself head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Now, X is on track to record its first year of advertising growth since Musk took over in 2022. According to eMarketer, X is predicted to generate $1.31 billion in US advertising sales, up 17.5% year-on-year. It's a similar picture globally, with sales projected to grow 16.5% to $2.26 billion.

Emarketer Principal Analyst Jasmine Enberg told Bloomberg that some of the spending growth is being driven by fear as big advertisers return in an effort to curry favor with the Trump administration.

However, it's worth noting that even if X does meet those projections, the company's advertising business would still be bringing less money than before Musk took over. Twitter, as it still was at the time, reported advertising revenue of $4.5 billion in 2021, its final full year as a public company.

Would advertising on X really benefit companies politically? The Wall Street Journal wrote earlier this year that X CEO Linda Yaccarino had suggested that if brands don't start spending money on X again, they could face extra government scrutiny. Advertiser Interpublic Group, which is in the midst of a merger with rival Omnicom Group, took notice and signed a new annual deal with X for potential client spending.

Despite the increased advertising revenue, X has seen daily active iOS and Android users fall 22.1% from Election Day. Rivals Threads and Bluesky, meanwhile, have seen their user activity increase.

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Fear and favor are bringing advertisers back to X under Musk

 

[scavengerspc]

So, American companies are weak willed? And have no problems living on their knees?
We certainly don't need politics of any topic to tell us that. Don't call me surprised brother.

 

[BogdanR]

It is simple: whoever advertises there is dead to me and will use it only if there’s no other choice.
I’m not supporting fascism with my money if I can help it.

 

[The Talking Tech]

The power of corruption!

 

[Beerfloat]

What Yaccarino actually said is that her friend in the government may be forced to intervene with the intended merger with Omnicom if Interpublic does not increase advertising spending.

Our resident banana republicans will now explain that this never happened but also why it's only right that it did.

 

[pnntmp]

The advertisers are back due to the return to normalcy.

Before the election, there was a tremendous pressure on advertisers to quit the only big platform allowing free speech. Those who failed to comply were harassed by the former administration in all possible ways. Now they are no longer afraid.

 

[SRB]

If, for some reason, you need to print an article such as this, it might be a bit more realistic if it were based on anything other than sheer speculation. X use is up, Trump is elected, Elon is in with Trump, ergo, new users are back to curry favor out of fear of punishment by the orange man. Couldn't possibly be because he's actually found a boat load of fraud and abuse? How about, since cancel culture is on it's way out of style, people are feeling free to express their opinions again without fear of reprisals? How about this one, Instead of Bezos kissing the ring, perhaps he just got tired of losing money year after year with a dying old media paper publishing only one side of the argument?

Oh, wait! I forgot, there is only one side! Carry on.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

The advertisers are back due to the return to normalcy.

Before the election, there was a tremendous pressure on advertisers to quit the only big platform allowing free speech. Those who failed to comply were harassed by the former administration in all possible ways. Now they are no longer afraid.

This is one of the reasons cited by eMarketer, but of course only the negative is being talked about: https://www.emarketer.com/content/amazon-increases-x-ad-spending-musk-s-political-capital-grows

But as Musk becomes an influential figure in the Trump administration, companies that faced regulatory pressure under the Biden administration are attempting to improve their relationship

Elsewhere however, eMarketer cites the main reason for revenue declines for X as nothing to do with politics: https://www.emarketer.com/content/trump-election-signal-turnaround-advertising-x

“The problem Twitter has faced now, and even well before Musk took over, is that it was never a very high-performing social channel for brands. The brand safety discussion seemed to dominate the media, but a big reason brands have not leaned in is because of performance metrics, and how much more efficient media can be spent on other social platforms,” said Keith Bendes, vice president of strategy and GTM at Linqia. “Brands will go where the performance is, so unless Musk can improve the media metrics for advertisers they will never have incentive to make Twitter a significant part of their media strategy.”

 

[Beerfloat]

The advertisers are back due to the return to normalcy.

Before the election, there was a tremendous pressure on advertisers to quit the only big platform allowing free speech. Those who failed to comply were harassed by the former administration in all possible ways. Now they are no longer afraid.

"We can't defend the actual story so we'll make up our own"

 

[nnguy2]

How about, since cancel culture is on it's way out of style, people are feeling free to express their opinions again without fear of reprisals?

Weird take and defense of the administration that is canceling everything it doesn't agree with.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

There is no conflict where Elon Musk is. Just interests.

 

[McMurdeR]

Won't see any of those ads myself!

 

[TastyGrapes]

Allegedly not a single actual user saw those companies' ads next to pro-Nazi content - they had to do something really strange for thousands of tries to produce the screenshot they wanted. The defamation case against Media Matters goes to trial next month, we'll see what the court finds.

Also Media Matters is not just some "journalism watchdog", it's a known left-wing political advocacy group. That's not 'allegedly', they're not really trying to hide their partisanship.

In other words, Media Matters was very deliberately looking to scare off advertisers and may or may not have crossed a legal line in doing so.

This nonsense framing you'll read where somehow MM was just reporting the facts and the advertiser exodus wasn't a deliberately engineered outcome is just that - nonsense

And as one other poster put it this may be motivated by attempting to curry favor with the current administration, or it may be simply that they don't fear reprisal anymore - either from the previous administration, or from media hit jobs. Hard to say.

 

[BogdanR]

Won't see any of those ads myself!

Me neither, I dumped X after the Nazi salute.
I would still like to know who’s advertising there, so I can avoid those companies’ products or services.

 

[Puiu]

I guess Elon is blackmailing them. Nobody wants to actually advertise on a pro-nazi platform.

 

[Haaky]

Yea Musk has to BRIBE companies to advertise on X.
Boycott those companies and watch how fast they leave again.
Everyone should be deleting there X accounts.
Bust Musk, X, Tesla, Space X

 

[Win7user]

There, should be NO social media platforms. They're gossip sites, and 1st amendment censoring platforms, period! No, one benefits from them! They, should all be banned, with the notable exception of the platform that is a true 1st amendment platform, GAB!

 

[ArmorJr]

Who uses that Twittler nazi platform anyway?!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Every day it becomes increasingly clear that this is NOT a tech site but rather a far-left propaganda mill.

- Then stop reading the page. Demonstrate some agency and make your displeasure known by going somewhere else.

Techspot, like all of these companies advertising on X now, is driven by money. Inflammatory political posts bring in the clicks and revenue. Be part of the solution and take your business elsewhere.

 

[godrilla]

Every day it becomes increasingly clear that this is NOT a tech site but rather a far-left propaganda mill.

The far left has a lot in common with the nazi socialist party ( underline socialist) hence why the projection in them echo chambers!

 

[wiyosaya]

If, for some reason, you need to print an article such as this, it might be a bit more realistic if it were based on anything other than sheer speculation. X use is up, Trump is elected, Elon is in with Trump, ergo, new users are back to curry favor out of fear of punishment by the orange man. Couldn't possibly be because he's actually found a boat load of fraud and abuse? How about, since cancel culture is on it's way out of style, people are feeling free to express their opinions again without fear of reprisals? How about this one, Instead of Bezos kissing the ring, perhaps he just got tired of losing money year after year with a dying old media paper publishing only one side of the argument?

Oh, wait! I forgot, there is only one side! Carry on.

The only fraud DOGE has found is in the White House.

 

[wiyosaya]

The advertisers are back due to the return to normalcy.

Before the election, there was a tremendous pressure on advertisers to quit the only big platform allowing free speech. Those who failed to comply were harassed by the former administration in all possible ways. Now they are no longer afraid.

Free speech? Try an experiment. Go on there and post a derogatory comment about Musk. See what happens. You'll quickly realize just how free "X" is.

 

[wiyosaya]

- Then stop reading the page. Demonstrate some agency and make your displeasure known by going somewhere else.

Techspot, like all of these companies advertising on X now, is driven by money. Inflammatory political posts bring in the clicks and revenue. Be part of the solution and take your business elsewhere.

Looks like, to him at least, the OP had their worst fears confirmed.

 

[Axeia]

Anyone who thinks companies (those that advertise) care about anything are gravely mistaken. If they think going woke helps sales they'll do that. If they think racism would sell (and wasn't illigal) they'd be doing that. They don't care about you, they don't care about standpoints, they care about selling their product.
Never think companies are your friends or are on your side. They're on your side if it happens to result in more sales and that is where the loyalty ends.

Those that think Elon is a Nazi need to look up the definition. Those that think setting Tesla's on fire is justified are absolute lunatics.
If you don't like Elon feel free not to use any of his products and boycott whatever you want but don't go any further than that if you want anyone to ever think you're rational and take you serious

I'm definitely not pro Trump or Elon but sheesh...

 

[BogdanR]

Those that think Elon is a Nazi need to look up the definition.

I did. He is a fascist. Perhaps you are the one who should look fascism’s definition up? Umberto Eco’s for instance?

Please note I don’t think setting Teslas on fire is right, especially when they are already prone to catch it themselves Ford Pinto style. There are to date 273 such incidents resulting 83 fatalities and many more injured.

Still, vandalism is vandalism and it should be punished. And please note vandalism is not terrorism either.