A Perilous Platform: Why X Falls Short on Brand Safety for Advertisers
For the first time at The Continuum, this piece is also accompanied by a video. Watch the video here:
Gerald Bagg is a trailblazer and prominent figure in the marketing industry who has played a pivotal role in reshaping what we now refer to as performance marketing. Over the course of his career, he has experience on both sides of the marketing landscape, collaborating with renowned clients like Revlon, GlaxoSmithKline, Kawasaki, Westin Hotels, and Citibank. Later, he established Brentwood Marketing, a company serving clients from diverse sectors, including consumer packaged, cosmetics, and electronics. Gerald’s work with the well-known Epilady brand demonstrated the remarkable reach and effectiveness of brand response marketing.
Gerald developed a marketing approach aimed at engaging and influencing consumers when they are most receptive. This method, initially called "brand response" and later "brand & demand," combines significant campaigns with insights, creative messaging, strategies, and actions that resonate with consumers, consistently driving sales with measurable returns on investment. In its early stages, this marketing strategy involved traditional direct mail campaigns, which have since evolved into Direct Response Television (DRTV) and subsequently expanded to encompass digital marketing, social media, and more.
In 2002, Gerald co-founded Quigley-Simpson, a full-service advertising agency. Today, in its 21st year, the agency exemplifies Gerald's belief in leveraging a brand's reputation to generate interest throughout the entire consumer experience. Operating from offices in Los Angeles and New York City, Quigley-Simpson's seamless approach, rooted in its Brand-Led, Demand-Driven philosophy, equips the agency to address significant business challenges and provide innovative solutions that captivate consumers from initial interest to purchase.
Central to its operations, Quigley-Simpson relies on data and analytics to streamline decision-making, eliminating guesswork and enabling continuous optimization for clients. As the largest DRTV agency in the country, the firm possesses a unique advantage, securing favorable media rates and adapting swiftly based on real-time results due to its independence and size.
Quigley-Simpson's approach strongly connects with many brands, fostering enduring partnerships with well-established clients like Procter & Gamble (for over 18 years), JP Morgan Chase (for over 18 years), Ball Corporation, First Aid Beauty, Paycom, and Philips. The agency also works collaboratively with startups and nonprofit organizations like Earthjustice, Operation Smile, and Mercy Ships.
In a recent interview, Gerald discussed a topic close to his heart – brand safety.
Can we start by talking about brand safety and how it relates to advertisers?
Yes, I will address brand safety not in the theoretical sense but in the practical real world where major advertisers care about the reputations and integrity of their companies and the products that they have carefully nurtured, built and have labored extensively to protect.
Advertisers want to ensure that their messages are not associated with content that might damage their well-earned reputations. Brand-safe environments help maintain positive perceptions of brands.
Ads that are placed in inappropriate or controversial contexts can lead to negative associations. For example, an ad for a family-friendly product appearing alongside inappropriate content can create dissonance that can harm the brand’s image and consumer trust. That’s an obvious conclusion.
Customers too, are aware of brand values and ethical considerations. When messages are displayed in brand-safe environments, consumers are more likely to trust the brand, and this trust is essential for building long-term relationships with consumers.
In the ever-changing world of social media, news spreads rapidly. Advertisers want to avoid being swept into any controversy that could arise from their ads being placed in the wrong environment. Controversies can quickly go viral and can negatively and significantly impact a brand’s image.
Brands seek environments that offer a safe and trusted online experience. How does brand safety play a role in this?
Advertisers invest a lot of resources to understand their target audience. Placing ads in brand-safe environments ensures that they reach their intended demographics without the risk of alienating or offending potential customers.
Brand-safe environments contribute to a positive overall online experience for consumers, and this often leads to increased engagement and brand loyalty.
Brand safety is a strategic imperative for advertisers, especially major corporate names, to protect their high-profile reputations, maintain consumer trust, comply with regulations, and ensure that their messages are delivered within the intended context. It is an integral part of building and sustaining a successful and positive brand image in the competitive marketplace.
Is there a media environment that you feel exhibits an example of what not to do?
Twitter Logo
X logo
I noted that this is not a theoretical discussion about brand safety, and this is where the dynamic of this conversation changes. Let’s talk about the unfortunate devolution of X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter which has lost a significant amount of ad revenue this year and is reported to be likely to lose as much as an additional $75 million by the end of 2023 as dozens of major brands have stopped their marketing efforts on the X platform as a result of their ads being placed alongside far right wing content, and also as a result its owner, Elon Musk having personally endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory recently.
“ Let’s talk about the unfortunate devolution of X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter which has lost a significant amount of ad revenue this year and is reported to be likely to lose as much as an additional $75 million by the end of 2023 as dozens of major brands have stopped their marketing efforts on the X platform as a result of their ads being placed alongside far right wing content, and also as a result its owner, Elon Musk having personally endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory recently. ”
Are you surprised at the reaction major companies have had to X?
Not at all. Companies that have paused their advertising on X include IBM, Apple, Disney, Airbnb, Amazon, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft, and those are just the highest-profile advertisers.
These advertising freezes in the lucrative final quarter of the year, which generally is X’s strongest three months when brands run holiday promotions for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and as well as the last weeks leading up to gift giving during Christmas and Hannukah.
But this pullback by advertisers is not recent. It began soon after Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022. That was when the first levels of skepticism set in about his motives, his knee-jerk reactions to events in the world, and his self-centered pronouncements about whatever was in his head at the moment.
Didn’t Musk have a long history posting on Twitter well before he renamed it X?
Musk has been an active user of Twitter since 2009, posting memes, promoting his business interests, commenting on current political and cultural issues, mocking public and private figures, and engaging in his own form of international relations, that have been deemed “Chaotic” and irresponsible according to some media publications as well as to some political figures. Critics have accused Musk of being a source of misinformation, conspiracy theories and demonstrating a failure to separate his opinions and business interests. Given his high profile as an innovator, business leader, technological leader, and influencer, he should have been operating at the highest standards of caution and integrity. Yet he has chosen to adopt a stance 180 degrees from that, as evidenced by an expletive-laced outburst at the New York Times Deal Book Summit recently.
Musk has not been a casual poster on X either, and he has over 164 million followers as of now. So, he has a significant megaphone that makes enough major brands nervous about what he does in what has become his predictably unpredictable way of disruption.
Musk never seemed to understand the concept of brand safety because he has never been an advertiser of any of his own brands. Tesla, the leading electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, doesn’t advertise its products and didn’t even do so when the company was launched. So, it’s not unusual that Musk disrespects companies and people who value the environment where their advertising runs.
How does the hiring of Linda Yaccarino play into this, in your opinion?
Musk seemed to show he cared about advertisers when he hired Linda Yaccarino, the former high-profile executive from Turner Broadcasting and head of advertising for NBC Universal when he hired her as X’s Chief Executive Officer back in June 2023, but his actions have done nothing to support her and help her do what she was able to accomplish in any of her earlier jobs where those companies had high broadcast standards and content moderation. It was easy for NBC and Turner to attract high-profile advertisers who never had to worry that their products would be tainted by the content that might surround their ads.
Linda Yaccarino’s own brand, nurtured for over 30 years prior to her arrival at X, has taken a major beating too. Even before she joined what was still called Twitter at the time in May 2023, when the sudden announcement by Musk that she was to be named CEO was as much a surprise to her as it was to the rest of the world. She had not formally resigned from NBC yet at the time the news broke.
In fact, on the very day the news was leaked that she was joining Twitter, she was in the midst of rehearsing for what is typically the biggest day in NBCUniversal’s annual pitch to advertisers, the Upfronts, which was to take place in front of thousands of corporate executives at Radio City Musical Hall in Manhattan.
When Musk made the announcement, Yaccarino had not told her NBC bosses that she was planning on leaving, thereby upsetting a smooth transition for her, and setting the foundation and playbook for what has become a very unfortunate and bumpy career path and reputational challenge for the erstwhile custodian of brand integrity at blue chip TV networks.
“Musk never seemed to understand the concept of brand safety because he never has been an advertiser of any of his own brands. Tesla, the leading electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, doesn’t advertise its products and didn’t even do so when the company was launched. So, it’s not unusual that Musk disrespects companies and people who value the environment where their advertising runs.”
What do you see as the Future of X? Can X rehabilitate its image enough to attract back the brands it lost? And is Elon Musk capable of changing his ways to give major advertisers their confidence back to advertise on the X platform again?
Logos of Threads, Bluesky, and Mastadon
It’s a very steep hill to climb, and there are other platforms now, like Meta’s Threads, Blue Sky, Mastodon, and others which are not the same as X but have attracted many former X posters or Tweeters as they were once known.
When a company loses the trust of its former supporters as X has, and when its owner uses four-letter words to tell former advertisers where to go in a very public forum, the challenge of rehabilitation is compounded and complicated.
One must regard X as a very expensive mouthpiece for its owner, Elon Musk, who relishes the 164 million followers he has. It is his soapbox for whatever is on his mind. And he can afford to keep it that way as long as he generates the wealth from his other resources. His personal brand is helter-skelter, a rollercoaster ride of unpredictability that defies conventional norms. To him, brand safety is an alien concept, marked by a resounding "No Entry" sign.
So, it does not matter to him.
And as a consequence, X, as a platform, is not a medium where conventional brands want to promote themselves, and it is doubtful that Elon Musk is likely to change his narrative to bring back those advertisers it once had.
December 20, 2023
