More than three-quarters of marketers (77%) are planning to increase their ad spend on TikTok, while net advertising spend on X continues to decline.
The data – from Kantar’s Media Reactions report – is the latest blow for tech billionaire Elon Musk, who bought the rapidly deteriorating social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022. Last week X took out a lawsuit against advertisers removing advertising from the platform.
A recent report from TikTok also revealed that over half of TikTok marketers said they will increase their investment in the site over the next year, with the site set to benefit from its algorithm-centred mechanisms.
“Is this truly a boycott, or simply an ongoing decline in investment from marketers as X continues to face brand safety issues?” asked Kantar EVP of thought leadership Jane Ostler.
“Last September, Kantar’s Media Reactions study indicated a net 6% of marketers planned to increase their investment in what was then Twitter in 2023. However, a net 14% said they expected to reduce their investment in the platform in 2024 – as we are seeing now.”
“Marketers’ perceptions of X are that it is neither particularly trustworthy nor innovative; two hurdles it needs to overcome to win back media spend from advertisers,” she continued.
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Then known as Twitter, the site’s share of digital advertising revenue was at its peak in 2021, but within a year of becoming X that had plummeted, losing nearly 50% of its ad revenue.
In November 2023 Musk told fleeing advertisers to “go f*ck themselves” after advertisers including Disney, IBM, Apple and Coca-Cola withdrew funding after Musk was embroiled in an antisemitism scandal.
The advertising body Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) announced that it had to disband just days after X revealed it was suing members including CVS Health, Mars and Orsted.
GARM placed a statement on its website which read: “GARM is a small, not-for-profit initiative, and recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly drained its resources and finances.”
“GARM therefore is making the difficult decision to discontinue its activities.”
It comes amid a wider discussion about brand safety, with a recent damning Adalytics report revealing that adverts for brands including Disney, Ikea and more were shown next to pages with pornographic and racist content.
Musk and X: Timeline of a turbulent affair
- February 2023: A few months after buying the platform, then Twitter, in October 2022, Musk was already under scrutiny for featuring too many irrelevant and annoying advertisements. He apologised.
Sorry for showing you so many irrelevant & annoying ads on Twitter!
We’re taking the (obvious) corrective action of tying ads to keywords & topics in tweets, like Google does with search.
This will improve contextual relevance dramatically.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2023
- November 2023:
- After a loss in advertising revenue X CEO Linda Yaccarino travelled to London to woo top advertising dogs.
- A swathe of brands including IBM, Disney, Apple, and even the British government, pulled advertising from the platform after Musk was embroiled in an antisemitism scandal.
- Musk told advertisers to “go f*ck themselves” over their decision to pull out.
- June 2024: Musk spoke at Cannes Lions, taking to the stage with WPP’s Mark Read, and told advertisers that his previous remark was about freedom of speech over being “censored for money”.
- August 2024:
- Musk is forced to shut San Francisco headquarters due to “processing payments”, and shares plans to relocate both X and Space X to Texas.
- X takes legal action over advertisers boycotting the platform calling the behaviour, with CEO Linda Yaccarino sharing an open letter calling the behaviour a “stain on a great industry”.
