By Krystal Scanlon • September 18, 2024 •
Ivy Liu
Looks like big advertisers aren’t slamming the door on X just yet, even if their relationship with its owner, Elon Musk, is more drama than deal-making.
How else do you explain 80 marketers showing up at X’s New York HQ yesterday (Sept. 17) for another client council session? It’s essentially X’s version of an upfront — where advertisers come to kick the tires and decide if the platform is still worth their ad dollars, despite the drama that makes it a risky bet.
“I think there is an overall curiosity among advertisers in general, regardless of whether they’re spending or not, to see what X is doing and what developments are happening there,” said Jasmine Enberg, vp and principal analyst of social media and the creator economy at eMarketer. X declined to comment.
Senior marketers from the likes of McDonald’s, FanDuel, Lenovo, NFL, NBA and the WNBA gathered around couches and small tables, alongside other reps from multiple sports leagues and major holding groups, according to one ad exec who was in the room.
They listened in the Commons space of the building as CEO Linda Yaccarino, who stood on a slightly raised stage, positioned X as an “indispensable platform” for brands connecting with audiences around key cultural moments. That’s been the social network’s core pitch for years, but Yaccarino reiterated it by dropping engagement stats from the Olympics, WNBA games, and the U.S. presidential race. Her message was clear: despite all of X’s challenges, it remains a lightning rod for real-time conversations — like it or not. The pitch came wrapped in the usual buzzwords — calling X the “global town square” and promises of “brand safety” that have become the standard script for keeping advertisers on board.
At one point, Yaccarino called the session’s dialogue “indispensable for us too,” according to the ad exec, adding, “We connect with you. We learn from you. We listen to you. And we take your feedback and get better.”
But the part that was new this time? The introduction of Angela Zepeda, X’s newly appointed global head of marketing. After being introduced by her boss, Zepeda used her first public appearance to reinforce the messaging already laid out. She rattled off stats about rising video views and monthly active minutes on X, and hinted at upcoming features like payments, hiring updates, and developments with X’s AI tool, Grok.
Zepeda was followed by other key players from X’s team, including Brett Weitz (head of content), Alex Josephson (part of the NEXT Team, which is X’s brand strategy and creative services for advertisers), Sid Rao and Evan Jones (engineering), Kylie McRoberts and Evan Jones (brand safety). Monique Pintarelli, head of the Americas, wrapped up the morning with a deep dive into the state of X’s ad business.
According to the ad exec, Pintarelli claimed, “Nearly 90% of our top 100 advertisers from 2023 are currently spending on the platform. 70% of the top 100 are accelerating spend quarter-over-quarter, and 50% are accelerating year-over-year.”
With that, the marketers broke for lunch before heading into themed breakout sessions in separate room throughout the floor, which covered topics like “Driving Partner Outcomes”, “Content on X”, “Breakthrough on X with NEXT”, and “Becoming the Everything App,” said the exec in attendance.
That so many marketers showed up speaks volumes — it shows the platform has piqued their curiosity, even if it doesn’t yet have their ad budgets locked in.
Still, 26% of advertisers are said to be planning to cut ad spend on X next year, according to a survey by Kantar. The survey also found that only 4% of marketers said they believed ads on X were brand safe, compared to 39% who felt the same about ads on Google.
Brand safety is often the publicly stated reason for why advertising is so dire on the platform, but it’s not the only issue. If brand safety were the only concern, the ad industry’s biggest names wouldn’t have gathered to hear X’s pitch. After all, brand safety is a risk across all platforms.
What’s unique, and arguably more off-putting for marketers, is X’s owner, Elon Musk. Many brands don’t want to be seen supporting someone so polarizing, regardless of what they think about his platform.
“Brand safety is a concern for many advertisers, but if there’s one thing that can trump brand safety, it is ad performance,” said Enberg. “The more that X can do to convince advertisers that its ads are performing, and that it is an essential investment for them, the better position they’ll eventually be in.”
As usual, the event comes at a tense time for advertisers and X. Just last month, X filed a federal antitrust suit against GARM, WFA, CVS Health, Mars, Ørsted, and Unilever. The move forced the WFA to shut down GARM entirely. So while advertisers gathered at X’s headquarters to hear the latest pitch, the ongoing legal battles were hard to ignore. The timing is far from ideal for Yaccarino, but tension has become the norm in X’s strained relationship with the ad industry.
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