X Unlikely to Win Back Advertisers Before Holiday Season

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Elon Musk picked Linda Yaccarino to be chief executive officer of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, with hope that the former NBC Universal executive would convince advertisers who had stopped spending on the site to return. But so far, many major brands are remaining on the sidelines, and have already planned to deploy their budgets elsewhere during the holiday season — historically the most lucrative period for ad revenue.

The social media site has been scrambling to win back advertisers who fled after Musk's chaotic takeover and controversial policy changes, taking more than half the company's annual revenue with them. But Yaccarino has run out of time to achieve the turnaround this year, according to multiple advertisers in charge of major brand spending.

Marketers normally lock in their holiday budgets by August, said Natasha Blumenkron, vice president of paid social at Tinuiti, a marketing firm. The last three months of the year have historically been X's biggest revenue driver. “It would take a big change and a big reason to believe for us to recommend that our advertisers are shifting budgets back there,” she said. None of Tinuiti's advertisers plan to buy ads on X during the holidays and instead are increasing spending on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and even Snapchat.

Twitter “was a part of every plan,” said Jason Harris, CEO of ad agency Mekanism, which works with clients including Alaska Airlines, Charles Schwab and Dropbox. “Now brands, our clients, are pivoting away from it more towards stable platforms like TikTok or Reels or even YouTube Shorts,” he said.

A representative for one large advertising agency, who declined to be named discussing internal metrics, estimates their spending on X is down by