General Mills, Audi and Pfizer Join Growing List of Companies Pausing Twitter Ads
Advertisers are concerned about a flurry of executive departures at Twitter and new owner Elon Musk’s plans for content moderation
By Suzanne Vranica
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and Patience Haggin
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Updated Nov. 3, 2022 7:09 pm ET
Food company General Mills Inc., Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc., Pfizer Inc., Volkswagen AG's Audi are among a growing list of brands that have temporarily paused their Twitter advertising in the wake of the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, according to people familiar with the matter.
Some advertisers are concerned that Mr. Musk could scale back content moderation, which they worry would lead to an increase in objectionable content on the platform. Others are temporarily halting their ads because of the uncertainty at the company as top executives exit and Mr. Musk considers a raft of changes, some of the people said.
Representatives for General Mills and Audi of America confirmed the companies have paused Twitter ads. “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” said a spokeswoman for General Mills, whose brands include Cheerios, Bisquick and Häagen-Dazs.
A Twitter representative didn’t respond to a request for comment.
General Motors Co. paused its spending on the social-media platform last week.
Many other companies are doing the same. An executive at one major ad agency said about 20 of its clients had temporarily paused Twitter spending. Ad buyers say that the platform isn’t considered a must-buy for many advertisers, with far larger budgets going to tech giants such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc., and that pausing makes sense during the bumpy transition under Mr. Musk.
Many executives on Madison Avenue are uneasy with the rash of sudden executive departures from Twitter’s advertising sales and marketing units. Among those who have exited are Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, and Jean-Philippe Maheu, Twitter’s vice president of global client solutions. Those executives helped reassure advertisers that their ad dollars were being spent wisely and appropriately on Twitter.
While digital advertising has been upended by automation, which allows companies to buy and sell advertising using technology, the business is still heavily dependent on the relationships between ad-sales executives and advertisers.
Mr. Musk has been working to reassure advertisers—both publicly and privately—that the platform will remain a safe place for brands. Since tweeting last week that Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape,” the billionaire has participated in several meetings and video calls with some of the world’s largest ad companies and blue-chip advertisers, ad executives said.
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk participated in a video call with WPP PLC, the world’s largest ad company, and some of its clients such as Coca-Cola Co., Unilever PLC and Google, according to people familiar with the meeting.
During the meeting, Mr. Musk stressed that Twitter would be a safe place for brands, promising to rid the platform of bots and add community-management tools, according to the people.
He also discussed how he was seeking to segment the content on Twitter so users could customize what shows up in their feeds. That would allow people to have the equivalent of a PG-rated version of the platform, Mr. Musk said, and give advertisers the ability to choose which content to be near, according to the people familiar with the meeting.
Twitter already gives advertisers tools to help ensure their ads don’t appear next to content they deem objectionable, although some ad buyers say the company trails its competitors in that area, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
During the virtual meeting, Mr. Musk spoke frankly about what he sees as Twitter’s problems in areas from engineering to security, according to the people familiar with the meeting.
Mr. Musk has indicated he is leaning toward creating an $8-a-month subscription program for Twitter. In the meeting with advertisers he said subscribers would see fewer ads. Advertisers tend to favor having fewer ads in content because it allows their ads to resonate better with consumers.
Meanwhile, Publicis Groupe SA, an ad agency giant that works with companies such as Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A. and Samsung Electronics Co., is expected to host a one hour video meeting for its clients soon with Mr. Musk. according to an email the agency sent it its clients on Wednesday that was reviewed by the Journal.
Some ad agency executives said they would welcome any improvement to Twitter under Mr. Musk, who has proved to be a successful businessman. The company relies on ads for most of its revenue, but accounts for only about 1.1% of U.S. digital ad-spending, according to Insider Intelligence.
Some ad buyers said brands could shift ad dollars currently allocated to Twitter over to other tech platforms. In an email sent to an ad buyer on Wednesday, a Facebook representative played up the company’s approach to brand safety. The email said the company is aware that brands are “revisiting their brand safety and suitability protocols” given “the chaotic media landscape,” according to a copy reviewed by the Journal.
Source:https://www.wsj.com/articles/genera...sing-twitter-ads-11667507765?mod=hp_lead_pos2
