Twitter kept its pitch to advertisers brief during its NewFront presentation today, as the platform awaits a sale to Elon Musk. The live presentation in New York City lasted only 20 minutes; Snap's marathon session the day prior, in comparison, was nearly two hours long, while Meta, Roku and Amazon were all around an hour and a half.
“It was more of a ‘we’re still here’ move than anything,’” said one marketing executive, who is close with Twitter leadership and spoke about the NewFronts presentation on the condition of anonymity.
It seemed the goal was to show things are business as usual, with Twitter packing the half hour with announcements about publishing partnerships, video sponsorship opportunities, and “brand safety,” the latter of which is top of mind for brands since Musk has suggested looser moderation policies.
“Thirty minutes is awfully short,” said another media and advertising executive, who works closely with Twitter and attended the show.
TJ Adeshola, Twitter’s head of global content partnerships; Robin Wheeler, Twitter’s VP of U.S. client services; and Sarah Personette, Twitter’s chief customer officer, spoke at the event. The NewFronts are a moment for platforms to pursue major brand advertising budgets by rolling out new content partnerships. Twitter showed off a World Cup 2022 deal with Fox Sports, which will produce shows for the platform around the tournament.
Twitter execs also talked about publishers like Condé Nast, which also hosted a presentation earlier this week. Condé Nast’s Met Gala, which took place this week, attracted millions of viewers to Twitter livestreams. Twitter also touted its partnership with diverse-owned media properties like Essence magazine and Revolt.