For years, X (formerly Twitter) was a wonderland for brands, drawing them in with its potential. Like Alice, they navigated its whimsical landscape, engaging with audiences and showcasing their content. However, as hate speech and fake accounts bloomed like poisonous flowers, this wonderland too turned into a sea of perils, forcing several brands to dissociate with it. Over the last two years, several brands stopped advertising on the platform because of growing antisemitic content. In late December 2023, news of LinkedIn seeing a surge in demand for digital advertising started to pour in around the time X was struggling to retain advertisers, pointing to an exodus. Although, a defiant Musk infamously addressed the matter using profane language. Recently, Hyundai joined the ranks of the disgruntled, once again putting into question the relevance of X for brands in today’s politically charged world. IMPACT discussed this with industry insiders to understand if advertising on X comes with potential risks that could outweigh the benefits of the reach it provides.
The Fading X-factor
While there are no doubts about the stellar reach X can provide for brands, the platform has reportedly transformed into a minefield for hate speech, fake accounts, and volatile political narratives. Since Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform in October 2022, anti-semitic tweets have seen a sharp surge. According to research from the Institute of Strategic Design (ISD), such tweets doubled from June 2022 to February 2023. Moreover, the platform had also reinstated several banned accounts and introduced a feature to buy verified status or blue ticks, which led to quite a bit of chaos in the X-verse. To make things worse, last week, X Corp lost a lawsuit against a nonprofit group that criticised the rise in hate speech on the platform. X had filed the lawsuit last July, claiming that the nonprofit group was running a ‘scare campaign’ to drive away advertisers. All of this makes X a controversial platform to advertise on.
Jagdeep Kapoor, Chairman and MD, Samsika Marketing Consultants notes that it is smarter for brands to stay away from a platform that can cause potential harm to their brand image. He says, “There are two aspects to any brand communication strategy – the creative and the media. If there are some problems with your creative strategy, you would try to mend it or take it off the market. The same approach should be there for the media as well. If a platform is full of hate speech and negative content that could cause potential harm to your brand image, you must remove your content from there. It is smart for brands like Hyundai to pause advertising on X. I would say, follow the simple philosophy of ‘pehle karo vichaar, phir karo prachar’ (first think, then promote).”
Stay, But Tailor Strategies
Keeping the brand safe is imperative, but can brands avoid platforms like X, which have become the chief source of information and entertainment for a large section of society? According to Elon Musk, the platform had around 550 million monthly active users globally in 2023. As per Oberlo data, India is the third-largest user of X with 26.1 million users on the platform.
Lloyd Mathias, Angel Investor and Brand Strategist quips, “Social media is an open space where anyone can have a say about a brand, unlike earlier when marketers had absolute control over it. In today’s world with rising geopolitical tensions, brands need to be more aware of how their communication is presented and perceived. Having said that, I don’t think pulling out of any social media platform is the best idea. At this pace, gradually you will have to stop advertising on social media platforms as hate content and fake news are present everywhere. Instead, brands must be focussing on tailoring their strategies, targeting smartly, and proactively engaging with the users.”
Further, Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru feels that brands must avoid taking any socio-political sides. He says, “I am a theorist and I firmly believe that brands cannot and must not have social and political leanings at all. A brand is for everyone; it is not for a small group of people or for that matter, a large group of people in society. Therefore, leaning towards a social or political cause is wrong for brands.”
During his infamous rant on CBNC, Musk said, “What this advertising boycott is going to do is, it is going to kill the company. And the whole world will know that those advertisers killed the company.” Whether X survives the rest of the year or not, brands will do well to be strategic with their content positioning on social media platforms by using advanced tools. Leaving X is certainly a short-term solution, but in the long run, a hawk-eyed view of their content positioning
is required.
