Sorrell advises Musk to ‘engage’ with advertisers
MEDIA guru Sir Martin Sorrell has urged Elon Musk to “engage” with and listen to Twitter’s fleeing advertisers, as he warns many will adopt a “wait and see” approach to the platform until the billionaire’s plans become clearer.
Sir Martin, who founded WPP and now runs S4 Capital, said advertisers “hate uncertainty” and would be put off by the current storm of chaos at the tech giant.
Mr Musk is battling to prevent an exodus of Twitter’s customers, triggered by pressure from campaign groups and concerns at top brands about the new “direction” of the platform.
Sir Martin said: “The big variable is Elon Musk. Advertisers don’t like controversy, so most will adopt a waitand-see attitude until he is clearer. They hate uncertainty. It will not happen overnight, but in Elon, we trust.” He added that Twitter was “a weird and wild experiment” that is “all over the place” and “doesn’t translate for risk-averse advertisers”.
Asked what message Mr Musk should deliver to advertisers, Sir Martin said: “I want to engage with you and respond to your needs.”
The introduction of a “moderation council” that will make major decisions on banning content or users was a step in the right direction, Sir Martin said.
The day before he acquired the tech company just over a week ago, Mr Musk sought to assure advertisers that Twitter would be a safe place for them to showcase their brands.
“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” Mr Musk said.
So far the message does not appear to have resonated. Last Friday Volkswagen became the latest big corporate name to tell its brands to halt marketing on the social media site.