Whereas Twitter sees more and more of its advertisers leaving, SpaceX has just ordered one of the largest advertising campaigns offered by the social network. Mere coincidence? Surely not…
The situation at Twitter is chaotic. While ad revenue accounted for 89% of the company’s revenue in 2021, more and more brands are cutting spending at Twitter. This is particularly the case for Chipotle, General Motors and Volkswagen.
An unusual approach for SpaceX
One of Elon Musk’s other companies, SpaceX, comes to the rescue of the social network. The space company has indeed acquired one of the largest advertising packages offered by the latter for the sum of 250,000 dollars. The objective of this campaign is to promote the Starlink Internet satellite network in Spain and Australia.
Thus, Twitter users in these countries should see Starlink ads the first three times they open the Twitter app when the campaign launches. According to a former platform employee interviewed by CNBCthis type of purchase from SpaceX is not usual: the company does not generally spend on advertising on Twitter.
The situation is paradoxical for Elon Musk. While he has long boasted of not spending on traditional advertising with his company Tesla, he must now sell advertising space on Twitter…
Twitter needs ad customers
And he must do it quickly as the situation is worrying for the social network. If Musk wants his new subscription system, Twitter Blue, to eventually account for half of the company’s revenue, he still currently depends on ads. However, major global advertising agencies such as GroupM or Omnicom now recommend that their clients not invest in Twitter.
The brands’ decision can be explained by several reasons. Elon Musk has indeed fired half of Twitter’s staff as well as some of its leaders. Above all, emblematic executives of the company have decided to leave on their own, arousing the suspicions of advertisers. Finally, the deployment of Twitter Blue was completely chaotic, as evidenced by the Eli Lilly affair: a certified account caused the loss of billions to an American pharmaceutical company.
Musk knows that the context is difficult, he did not hesitate to mention a possible bankruptcy of Twitter to his employees a few days ago, but he still maintains his ambitions for the social network: in the long term, he wants the transform into a super-application offering many different services to its users.
Source : CNBC
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