Elon Musk offers Twitter advertisers an olive branch

Elon Musk is in the final stages of taking over Twitter, after showing up at the company’s HQ on Wednesday, and the impulsive billionaire is already doing damage control with advertisers, with an open message that assures them, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape.” For advertisers that would be a good start, because for months the ad industry has been alarmed by Musk’s potential to topple years of brand safety work that has gone into the service. In April, Musk started a chaotic process to buy Twitter for $44 billion, and his motivation was to wind down strict moderation policies in favor of more permissive speech. Musk framed his mission as a “free speech” crusade, with tones about saving democracy, but advertisers feared fewer controls would simply mean more trolls. Major ad agency executives and brands are worried that if Twitter wavers on support for safety measures, it could have ripple effects across the digital ad ecosystem. “Twitter’s content moderation is a leading factor in the fight for brand assurance and brand safety,” said Doug Rozen, CEO of Dentsu Media in the Americas, in an interview on Wednesday. “Without them fighting that fight on behalf of all of the internet, it takes one wedge, one wall, out of all the moderation impact we’re trying to make.” There have already been signs of major brands pulling back their ad spending on the service, companies like Verizon, Nestlé and Kraft Heinz. Now, Musk’s first official statement to advertisers, before expecting to take control of the company on Friday, looks like an olive branch. “Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise,” Musk tweeted on Thursday. New: Musk completes Twitter takeover and fires CEO Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022 A major unanswered question for one agency executive, who spoke with Ad Age on condition of anonymity, is how committed Musk is to advertising, as opposed to subscription revenue. Moving away from advertising would be a mistake, the executive said, because he doubts subscription revenue could ever make up the difference. After reading Musk’s tweet on Thursday, some advertisers were somewhat mollified that Twitter would not completely abandon ads. “It tells me there will still be an ad business, so that's something,” said another top ad agency exec, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They are hearing that advertisers have been anxious.” ANA Masters of Marketing 2022 Updates and analysis from the annual event Read more here Advertising accounts for the bulk of Twitter's revenue. In the first half of 2022, Twitter's advertising revenue totaled $2.18 billion, up 11.8% from a year earlier. In 2021, advertising revenue jumped 40% to nearly $4.51 billion. Brand safety plans Over the months since Musk first approached Twitter to buy it, he became a destabilizing force for Twitter workers and advertisers. Musk has tweeted publicly about problems with the platform, like his concern about bots running rampant on the site, which are fake accounts that degrade the quality of conversation. After Musk made his offer for Twitter, digital advertising markets and the economy hit a downturn. Twitter’s peers Google, Meta and Snap plummeted in value, and Musk now appears to be overpaying for the company. Musk tried to back out of the deal in a bruising court battle, in which private messages revealed his interest in cutting Twitter employees. And, at one point, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal messaged Musk about how public tweets, in which Musk questioned if Twitter is "dying,” made making it harder to operate the company. Read about Musk's private messages about Twitter Advertisers also read Musk’s private messages from the court case, which showed some antipathy toward advertising as a business model. Musk floated ideas about ramping up Twitter’s subscription model, making brands pay for premium features and other revenue streams. Advertisers have been concerned because until now Twitter’s ads team has been pushing for reforms that sanitize the online conversation. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had been seen as the problem child of brand safety. Twitter, meanwhile, had mostly gotten a pass as brands thought the service was trying to rid itself of harassment, abuse, hate speech and violent political rhetoric. Musk’s private messages from his court case showed he planned to unwind many account bans that Twitter had made, including potentially restoring former President Donald Trump to the service. Twitter has been a party to many of the digital ad industry's official proposals to implement brand safety rules. Twitter, Meta, YouTube and others work with organizations like the Global Alliance for Responsible Media to audit the platforms for their hate speech and harassment policies, and to give brands a scorecard on how well the platform police themselves. Twitter has been doing this work and it has a client council, an advisory group of major brands that discuss brand safety standards and controls. Twitter has been talking to its client council over the months to keep advertisers comfortable while it finished its sale to Musk, ad execs said. Members of the Twitter advertiser council have been hearing assurances about the platform’s commitments to advertisers in recent months, another agency executive said, but it’s unclear how much those assurances mean prior to Musk taking over, most of what Twitter executives have been saying “sounds like it was written by lawyers,” the ad exec said. On Thursday, Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief operating officer, tweeted about Musk’s statement regarding advertising, supporting the new owner boss. “Has a great discussion with [Elon Musk] last evening,” Personette said. “Our continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged. Looking forward to the future.” Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Elon Musk offers Twitter advertisers an olive branch

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