Over recent weeks, Musk made a dramatic about face on the subject of advertising. The billionaire who once said “I hate advertising” suddenly thinks the whole thing is pretty great now that he stands to make some money from it, tweeting that he actually things that ads “can delight, entertain, and inform you.” Twitter makes 90% of its revenue from ads.
On Monday, Jason Calacanis, an investor and pal who Musk brought on board his new Twitter team, wrote that company reps were in New York meeting with representatives from the ad industry.
It’s unclear who those members of the marketing and advertising community are. Morning Brew reporter Ryan Barwick tweeted that the leading ad firms, Dentsu, Omnicom, IPG, and GroupM, all said they hadn’t met with Twitter or even heard of any meetings with the company.
Advertisers seem increasingly skittish about working with the Twitter amid concerns about brand safety on a platform that might soon be rife with distasteful content. HBO released a statement that it “will be assessing the platform under its new leadership,” GM stopped advertising on Twitter altogether, and leading ad firm IPG urged its clients to consider pausing Twitter ads.