According to a recent survey that was conducted by the Washington Post, more than a third of the top 100 advertisers on Twitter have not promoted on Elon Musk’s platform in the most recent two weeks.
More than a third of Twitter’s top 100 marketers have not promoted on the site in the most recent two weeks, according to a report by The Washington Post. This highlights the anxiety that advertisers are experiencing in light of Elon Musk’s purchase of the firm.
Pathmatics, a company that analyzes digital marketing statistics, reported that 14 of the top 50 advertisers have quit advertising on the site since Elon Musk’s disastrous acquisition of Twitter a few weeks ago. Since November 7, 2018, advertisements for blue-chip brands including Jeep and Mars confectionery, the corporate parents of which had been among the top 100 U.S. advertisers on Twitter in the six months prior to Musk’s purchase of the company, have not been displayed on Twitter. A few weeks ago, Breitbart News published an article that detailed the large advertisers who were in the forefront of the advertising flight that followed Musk’s takeover.
Mars sent the following statement in response to questions from the Post: “Mars started suspending advertising activity on Twitter in late September when we learnt of certain severe brand safety and appropriateness issues that impacted our brand.” The remark gives the impression that the advertising hiatus at Mars occurred before Musk’s acquisition of the company.
In addition to the pharmaceutical behemoth Merck, several companies including Kellogg’s, Verizon, and Boston Beer have suspended their advertising on the platform. During the six months prior to the stop, the advertisements for the advertisers were shown on the website tens of millions of times every week, with some of the advertisements being broadcast billions of times during the busiest hours on the platform. During the pause, the advertisements were not presented.
According to Matthew Quint, who directs the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School, many businesses are facing “pressure, from a range of their stakeholders and consumers, around being connected with content that is viewed as inflammatory.” This pressure comes from the perception that the companies are associated with controversial topics.
Quint made the observation that Musk is evolving into “a very strong brand himself, and a controversial brand.” In addition to this, he stated, “The more that he is in the public eye, the more advertising may… merely chose to state that I’m still not ready to be significantly affiliated with a platform owned by Musk at this moment.”