Amazon, YouTube and TikTok are thriving as X continues to fall (plummet?) from grace, with more than a quarter (26%) of marketers planning to reduce ad spend on the platform next year.

According to Kantar, this is the biggest recorded pullback from any major global ad platform.

The bad news for Musk et al is just one of the findings from this year’s Media Reactions 2024 report. Released today, the annual study combines global insights from 1,000 marketing professionals and 18,000 consumers, carefully gathered to track the ever-changing nature of the current media landscape.

And the marketing insights and analytics company has revealed some seismic changes.

In the wake of X’s much-discussed difficulties, marketers have started placing their ads elsewhere. This shift of activity has seen Amazon and TikTok emerging as consumers’ favourite ad platforms, while YouTube is top with marketers and Netflix is – just about – keeping everyone happy.

Since Elon Musk bought X (then Twitter) back in 2022, marketers’ trust and confidence in the platform has plummeted – dropping from 22% in 2022 to 12% in 2024. The upshot of this is that Kantar’s research shows that just 4% of marketers currently believe advertising on the platform provides any semblance of brand safety.

Ouch.

Poor perception around innovation and trust have also been nails hammered into X’s proverbial advertising coffin.

“Advertisers have been moving their marketing spend away from X for several years,” said Media at Kantar’s global thought leadership director, Gonca Bubani, adding that “a turnaround currently seems unlikely”.

Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free

Sign up here to get the latest marketing news sent straight to your inbox each morning

“Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use,” she continued.

“X has changed so much in recent years and can be unpredictable from one day to the next – it’s difficult to feel confident about your brand safety in that environment. Ironically, decreasing spend by marketers on X will make consumers happier with the platform as they come face-to-face with fewer ads.”

TikTok, Amazon, YouTube have all benefitted from the social platform’s struggles, with the first two taking the top spots for consumers. Amazon’s ads rank well in the Kantar survey because of their relevance and usefulness; TikTok’s simply because they are fun.

Kantar also found that Marketers’ preferred media brand, YouTube, has jumped to the top of the rankings, having not appeared on the list at all last year. Netflix was the only brand to make the top five for both marketers and consumers.

Top-ranking digital media brands, by preference (change in ranking)

The research also found that generational stereotypes surrounding preferred media do not hold up under scrutiny, with the brands preferred by consumers varying significantly.

Contrary to popular opinion Gen Z prefers to see ads on Amazon, Facebook and Google, while Snapchat’s ads come out on top for millennials and Gen X. Older generations enjoy ads on TikTok, which appears in the top three for both the Gen X and boomer age groups.

In terms of channels, the Kantar analysis also shows that consumers favour point-of-sale (PoS) ads, seeing them as particularly trustworthy and useful. Crucially, PoS doesn’t hold negative connotations for being intrusive.

Other favoured channels include cinema ads, sponsored events, newspaper ads and out-of-home advertising, with marketers putting DOOH right at the top of their list. Only sponsored events and out of home ads made both rankings.

Top-ranking media channels, by preference (change in ranking)

There’s good news for advertisers too, with almost half of consumers (47%) found to be receptive to adverts (up from just 24% in 2020). This number has been growing steadily as consumers become used to seeing ads across a wider range of channels.

“Campaigns which reach more receptive audiences are seven times more impactful. That’s why it’s so important for marketers to find the sweet spot between the right channel, the right media brand and the right format,” Bubani continues.

“To thrive in today’s fragmented environment, brands have to do more than understand shifting cultural and media dynamics – they need to care about their creative quality and make sure they’re customising it for the right environment.

“That means finding opportunities to stand out meaningfully, meet consumers in their diversity, and connect with audiences in more authentic and impactful ways.”