As appeared on Daily Mail on 21 February 2023, read here.
Top brands will no longer advertise on and are abandoning Twitter because they fear a public backlash, claimed a leading UK media boss.
Nick Waters, who heads up Ebiquity, the Aim-listed firm that advises brands on how to spend advertising budgets, said most of its clients have abandoned the social media platform since Elon Musk bought it for £38billion in October.
‘I can hardly think of a client of ours who has supported Twitter through this,’ he said.
He said the main advice from ad agencies has been to cut all ties until there is more clarity about content moderation on the site amid fears over what lax rules could do to brand reputation.
Advertising giant Omnicom, which represents 5,000 firms including McDonald’s, Apple and Pepsi, has told customers to pause promotions on the site, citing ‘serious risk to brand safety’.
Reports suggest more than 500 major advertisers have paused their spending on the site since the Tesla tycoon bought the site, with Twitter daily revenues 40 per cent lower than they were a year ago.
In order to combat this decline, Twitter has been trying to lure advertisers back, offering a Super Bowl ‘fire sale’ deal earlier this month to cash in on what could have been one of the biggest audience days of the year.