Comcast, Disney, and IBM Are Among Advertisers Returning to X After Ad Freeze
Elon Musk's ties with Donald Trump might spur some advertisers to think spending on X is good for business
X’s former top advertisers including Comcast, IBM, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lionsgate Entertainment, have resumed ad spending on the platform this year, albeit at much lower rates than before.
From January to September 2024, marketing intelligence platform MediaRadar found that these brands collectively spent less than $3.3 million on X. This is a 98% year-over-year drop from the $170 million spent during the same period in 2023.
These brands, along with Apple, paused their campaigns in November 2023 after their ads appeared next to antisemitic content and hate speech, exacerbated by X owner Elon Musk endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which spooked many advertisers.
According to MediaRadar, X’s top advertisers include challenger brands like Karma Shopping, Canles Shoes, and Kueez Entertainment, each of which spent more than $12 million this year, totaling $68 million, to stand out on a less busy media channel.
“This suggests that X might move to a long-tail advertiser strategy, ” said Meghan Fraze, chief product officer, of MediaRadar. “This would benefit new brands that are looking for ways to connect with audiences without the intense competition. As X evolves, it could be forging an ad model that’s less dependent on the usual suspects.”
A spokesperson from IBM told ADWEEK its approach to X has not changed. Comcast, Disney, and Lionsgate did not respond to media requests. Warner Bros. Discovery did not respond with an official comment before publishing.
Article
While Mark Cuban and other sore losers are leaving X to shout into the void, several major advertisers have returned to the platform.
Comcast, IBM, Disney, Warner Brothers, Discovery and Lionsgate Entertainment have all resumed ad spending on the social media giant - albeit this is more of a toe-dip than a full recommitment. According to Adweek, the brands collectively spent less than $3.3 million on X from January to September 2024, a far cry from the $170 million spent during the same period in 2023.
Either way, it's an admission that pulling ad spend over 'hate speech' and 'antisemitism' was nothing more than a giant virtue signal, particularly considering Facebook and Instagram's long history of providing a safe forum for child sexual abuse.
While a global survey by Kantar of senior marketers across 20 countries found that 26% of them plan to cut spending on X in 2025, the 2024 election may have changed that.
"X’s owner now has the ear of the president-elect, a man who has a long history of helping his friends, and punishing his enemies," said Max Willens, senior analyst at Emarketer. "Sending at least a trickle of ad spending toward X may be seen as good for business, albeit in an indirect way."
Advertising Cartel Under Fire
Speaking of the tide turning, the woke cabal of advertisers trying to starve conservative platforms out of a voice is now coming under fire (have we mentioned lately that we really appreciate our premium subscribers?).
In a Wednesday letter to Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Meta, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr accused them of having "participated in a censorship cartel that included not only technology and social media companies but advertising, marketing, and so-called "fact-checking" organizations as well as the Biden-Harris Administration itself."
"The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability."
Carr then suggested that their protection from liability under Section 230 may be on the line.
"As you know, Big Tech's prized liability shield, Section 230, is codified in the Communications Act, which the FCC administers. As relevant here, Section 230 only confers benefits on Big Tech companies when they operate, in the words of the statute, "in good faith."
Wow...
Carr then set his sights on NewsGuard - which Jonathan Turley notes has been long accused by conservatives "of targeting conservative and libertarian sites and carrying out the agenda of its co-founder Steven Brill. Conversely, many media outlets have heralded his efforts to identify disinformation sites for advertisers and agencies."
Basically, NewsGuard bombards conservative sites with struggle-session questionnaire emails demanding explanations for the slightest of indiscretions, after which they issue a "report card" that advertisers use to justify pulling ad spend.
As Carr notes in the letter; "It is in this context that I am writing to obtain information about your work with the one specific organization - the Orwellian named NewsGuard. As exposed by the Twitter Files, NewsGuard is a for-profit company that operates as part of the broader censorship cartel. Indeed, NewsGuard bills itself as the Internet's arbiter of truth or, as its co-founder put it, a "Vaccine Against Misinformation." Newsguard purports to rate the credibility of news and information outlets and tells readers and advertisers which outlets they can trust."
Carr suggests following NewsGuard's ratings may constitute a violation of Section 230 (this is huge).
"NewsGuard's own track record raises questions about whether relying on the organization's products would constitute "good faith" actions within the meaning of Section 230. For one, reports indicate that NewsGuard has consistently rated official propaganda from the Communist Party of China as more credible than American publications."
"For another, NewsGuard aggressively fact checked and penalized websites that reported on the COVID-19 lab leak theory."
Carr then demands the following information:
A list of every one of your products or services (if any, including advertising) that use or rely on any NewsGuard product, service, or ranking.
A list of every one of your products or services (if any) that enables any of your users or customers to use or rely on NewsGuard product, service, or ranking.
If you offer an advertising service, provide details on the use of any media monitor or fact checking service, including NewsGuard, that you may utilize.
X (link unavailable), formerly known as Twitter, has a massive user base of over 600 million monthly users ¹. To break it down further, the platform boasts approximately 907.1 million unique visitors per month, with 2.5 billion visits coming from mobile devices and 1.9 billion from desktops ¹.
Interestingly, most X users are under 35 years old, making up about 58% of the total user base ¹. The platform also has a male-to-female split of roughly 2:1, with males accounting for 68.66% of users ¹.
Geographically, the United States has the largest proportion of X users, with around 100 million users, followed closely by Japan with 67.5 million users ¹.
It's worth noting that (link unavailable) was initially an online banking service founded by Elon Musk in 1999, but the domain name was repurposed for Twitter after Musk's acquisition in 2022 ².
X User Data (Top Stats)
There are over 600 million monthly users on X
Most X users (58%) are under 35 years old
X has a male-to-female split of just over 2:1
Approximately 1 in 5 X users are American
The average user spends 34 minutes and 6 seconds on X daily
88.1% of X users also use Instagram
Elon Musk is the most-followed person on X (around 200 million followers)
According to data from Semrush, traffic to X has increased in recent months.
In April 2024, around 0.5 billion visits were recorded (87% on mobile). By August, this figure had climbed to 4.3 billion.
2.5 billion visits are recorded via mobile (42.78%) and 1.9 billion via desktop (57.22%).
Almost 3 in 4 (72%) visits occur via direct traffic – that accounts for 3.1 billion hits.
In total, X has approximately 907.1 million unique visitors per month – down 3.25% from July 2024.
Disney CRAWLS Back to X Advertising After Musk Told Bob Iger "Go F Yourself!"
#x #disney #advertisers !summarize
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Elon Musk told them to Go fuck themselves and now they're saying "Yes Sir We will" they bet against Elon and the prophecy is fulfilled, never bet against Musk 🤣🤣
I am not betting against him. I like my #tesla stock holdings.
you have a Tesla stock 😳 big Guy you're in for an almost guaranteed profit, always wondered where the best place to buy the stocks?
I gotta get me some of those Tesla stocks fast before 2025. I see green candles for the Tesla stocks 😎🤣👍💯