What X is planning for its first marketing campaign under Musk’s ownership

X is preparing to position itself as the first “everything app" in the U.S. with a new campaign that includes the promotion of its new payments business, X Money, according to Angela Zepeda, global head of marketing at X. Zepeda, a former Hyundai marketer who took the X job in September, did not disclose the exact timing of the campaign in a recent interview, other than to say it would come “imminently.” Stagwell’s Code and Theory has been developing the creative and media strategy, she said, suggesting the campaign’s messaging will push X as a platform where users go to participate in live conversations about cultural moments. “If you want to know what’s happening in culture, sports, fashion, news or politics, and if you want to be part of that discourse, you come to X,” Zepeda said. The campaign is set to incorporate newer features such as X TV—a version of the platform tailored for smart TVs that debuted in beta last September—as well as X Money, which Zepeda said would launch sometime in the first quarter. X also recently launched a dedicated video tab for video content. In November, it debuted a hub for NFL stats and news called “NFL portal” and plans to launch a similar portal for the NBA. “You have all of these apps where you do all this stuff, but if you could just do it in one place it would be a lot easier,” Zepeda said. “That’ll be part of the messaging around these innovations—especially X Money, which is all about convenience.” NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today The campaign will mark X’s first paid media campaign since Elon Musk assumed ownership of the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022. Musk is a noted skeptic of paid advertising, but Zepeda and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have deep experience in the marketing industry, given their tenures at Hyundai and NBCUniversal, respectively. Zepeda did not reveal details on the paid media plan other than to say it is being developed with Code and Theory. While X Money has yet to officially launch, the planned payments business got a boost recently as a result of a new deal with Visa, which in late January confirmed that its money transfer network, Visa Direct, will enable X Money users “to fund and transfer money in real-time with their debit card.” We’re excited to partner with @XMoney on the launch of X Money Account. Visa Direct will make it possible for US X Money Account users to fund and transfer money in real-time with their debit card. https://t.co/h1t0ofX9NE— Visa (@Visa) January 28, 2025 X Money stands to challenge brands such as Venmo and Cash App. X Money users will be able to receive and send money to digital wallets on the platform once they connect a debit card or bank account. Visa’s partnership is “of many big announcements about X Money this year,” Yaccarino wrote in a post on X on Jan 28. X’s partnership with Visa is also the most recent step in a series of actions the platform has taken in recent months to fulfill Musk’s vision of making the platform a so-called superapp, one that combines multiple services such as payments, messaging, shopping and transportation in one place. X has long positioned itself as the water cooler of the internet—a place where users can have live conversations during major events such as the Super Bowl. Several brands found value in that pitch in January. The top 10 U.S. advertisers on the platform that month included Temu, which was the top advertiser on X in 2024, Robinhood, the NFL, DraftKings, Shein and Amazon, according to estimates from Sensor Tower, a market intelligence platform that tracks brands’ spending on digital ads. Amazon’s position in the top 10 marks a dramatic shift in its strategy, as the company pulled much of its media budget off the platform a year prior. Brand safety concerns had pushed advertisers to flee the platform, but it has seen a resurgence since the election of President Donald Trump, according to Guideline, a media investment monitoring company. While ad revenue declined by 32% in November compared with the same month in 2023, that improved from a 75% year-over-year decline in October. In December, revenue jumped 123% from a year earlier, according to Guideline. X isn’t the first social platform to create an in-app payment system. In September 2022, Meta rebranded Facebook Pay to Meta Pay, which allows users to link their cards and bank accounts to make online purchases and send users money. Still, X Money’s connection to a larger ecosystem differentiates the platform from most competitors in the social media and payments industry, Zepeda said. She added that creators will be paid through X Money, which should attract those interested in making money and managing their earnings in one place. “It’s a great way for creators to earn money and see the way they’re earning money on the app,” she said. X in November altered its creator monetization program to start paying users based on engagement from premium users instead of ads in replies. Great news for creators: the @XMoney Account, enabled by @Visa, will debut later this year.Visa wants to be everywhere money moves. By powering X Money through Visa Direct, we’re building on our recent move to recognize digital creators as small businesses, because we know they… pic.twitter.com/MXiygvJpQZ— Frank Cooper III (@f3cooper) January 29, 2025 The challenges with creating an ‘everything app’ X isn’t the first social media company to reach for superapp status. Other U.S. platforms have added features such as in-app shopping and peer-to-peer payments over the years but none have built an ecosystem comparable to superapps overseas, such as Tencent’s WeChat, which Musk has stated is the model for X. Experts say U.S. platforms struggle to build superapps due to regulator concerns over data privacy and antitrust violations. However, Andrew Frank, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said that X now lives in a “different world” marked by a weakened regulatory landscape. “X is banking on the fact that there seems to be a great deal of momentum in the direction of both deregulation and de-moderation on the content side,” he said. “But this is an international initiative and there are still pockets of regulatory resistance they’re going to have to address if they’re going to scale [X Money] up to a true global payment platform. We’ve seen how difficult that can be, particularly in an environment where there’s increasing hostility on the economic front between the U.S. and its tariff targets.” Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here X did not share details on how it plans to approach any potential regulatory concerns regarding X Money. With Musk being a strong ally of President Trump, it’s possible he would have sway over regulators under the administration’s control. “There’s no question that being close to the levers of power is an advantage when you’re trying to roll out something as vast and far-reaching as X is,” Frank said. But Musk’s influence, and polarizing nature, are a double-edged sword. He has recently drawn public scrutiny for his leadership of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. The New York Times recently first reported that Musk had received access to sensitive Treasury and taxpayer data. Senate Finance Committee member Ron Wyden on Jan. 31 sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressing concern that “officials associated with Musk may have intended to access these payment systems to illegally withhold payments to any number of programs.” His team has been given read-only access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system, however, and federal expenditures have not been affected, the Treasury said in a letter to Congress late on Feb. 4. DOGE has also drawn the ire of the National Treasury Employees Union after the Trump administration recently targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as part of its sweeping effort to slash government spending. Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, ordered the bureau to halt its functions. Employees were told that the CFPB headquarters in Washington, D.C., will be closed this week. The CFPB regulates banks, lenders and other financial institutions, including those that facilitate digital payments and wallets. “Musk and DOGE are dismantling the CFPB at the same time as they’re attempting to launch and scale a new payment system which would normally be regulated by that organization,” Frank said. “There would at least be some concern potentially promoted by some of Musk’s opponents that this not only represents a concern about the proper use of data but also the safety of the entire consumer financial market.”

What X is planning for its first marketing campaign under Musk’s ownership

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