Twitter’s rebrand to “X” has yet to catch on.

You don’t have to be a professional pollster to get this, of course. All you need is to consume the news. You also don’t need to be a marketer to understand the impact of losing billions of dollars in brand equity Twitter had accumulated since its launch in 2006.

But data analysis—and not intuitive understanding—can make all the difference when it comes to guiding marketers’ action. That’s why we were excited when Ad Age asked the Harris Poll to survey the public on Twitter’s rebrand and the launch of Threads, Meta’s social media app and apparent competitor to Twitter.

The Ad Age-Harris Poll’s top line is straightforward and presumably not the reaction for which Elon Musk was hoping. Fewer than 1 in 4 of those aware of the rebrand (23%) like it, while almost 2 in 5 (38%) don’t. The other 39% are neutral.

This reaction hit Twitter where it hurts: Among those aware of the rebrand, a greater number are using it less (13%) or have deleted their account altogether (4%) than are using it more (10%) or have signed up (3%). That said, those who were either favorable or neutral outnumber those whose reaction was unfavorable.

The overwhelming majority of those with an account—69%—still call the platform Twitter, as I do for the sake of ease throughout this report.

There’s more to the data than just the top lines and the lukewarm response to the rebrand. We found three trends marketers should know as they situate their brands on the platform:

Men love Twitter

It’s not that men are for Twitter and women are for Threads, but there is a real gender gap in how Americans perceive Musk’s social media platform. In almost every question we asked, men viewed Twitter more favorably than women. Men more often than women (15%-5%) reported having a Twitter account prior to the rebrand and using it more after the platform became X.

And while males more often dislike the new branding than like it (28% approve and 32% disapprove), the gap grows further among women (17% approve, 44% disapprove). Men more often report using the platform’s new name than women (35%-25%) and more often believe that its content is more factual than not (37%-24%). And while users of both platforms generally prefer Twitter to Threads, men (78%) outnumber women (57%). 

The bottom line: Tread carefully if you’re aiming to appeal to women. And our data backs that up: While only 42% of Twitter users are influenced by ads on the platform, men (46%) more often than women (37%) admit as much. 

Millennials in the nest

While 17-year-old Twitter might technically be part of Generation Z, it reached its maturity as millennials were reaching theirs—and that generation remains loyal to the brand.

Millennials are the only generation whose self-reported Twitter usage increased after the rebrand, for example. It was only a 5-percentage point difference (18% created an account or used their existing one more while 13% used theirs less or deleted their account altogether) but all of the other generations’ usage declined.

Adult Gen Zers reported a net 12-percentage point decline, for example. Similarly, millennials were the only generation who like the rebrand, with 37% approving and 31% disapproving. Gen Z, Generation X and baby boomers all disapproved of the name and logo changes by more than 20 percentage points. Millennials are also the generation most often agreeing their usage as time well spent—68% see it that way, at least 11 percentage points more than any other generation. 

It shouldn’t surprise, then, that millennials are also the generation to most often report (57%) that they’re influenced by Twitter ads. To put it in perspective, the majority of every other generation tested said that they’re not so influenced. The takeaway here is that Twitter remains a viable avenue for reaching millennials.

Threads … helps Twitter?

Perhaps the most surprising data points we found involve Threads. In brief, Threads users tend to have a more favorable view of Twitter than the general public. A plurality of Threads users (42%) like the Twitter rebrand, for example. Among Americans who have Twitter accounts, those who also use Threads say Twitter is factual more often than not (42% versus 32% overall). And 68% of Threads users with Twitter accounts said that their Twitter usage is time well spent. 

There is a level of symbiosis involved: Among Americans who know of the Threads launch, those who used Twitter before the rebrand more often use Threads at least some of the time.

Most importantly for marketers, among Twitter users, those with Threads accounts more often agree that ads on Twitter influence their behavior (62% versus 42% of current Twitter users overall). 

Twitter's future is still uncertain, though it so far seems clear that neither Threads nor the rebrand to X will kill it at this time. Twitter remains largely what it always has been in the eyes of its users: positive in some ways and negative in others. Can advertisers find value in that? Probably.