Elon Musk’s Cannes Lions charm offensive appears to have fallen on deaf ears, with fresh evidence suggesting that marketer confidence in X has declined significantly in the past year, driven by brand safety concerns and poor perceptions around innovation and trust.
The findings are included in Kantar’s Media Reactions 2024 report, an annual study exploring the evolving media landscape, which once again reveals that while digital channels dominate, more traditional and less intrusive print disciplines such as retail point of sale, newspaper, and out of home ads remain the most popular with consumers.
Based on interviews with about 18,000 consumers in 27 markets and 1,000 senior marketers globally, the study reports that when it comes to digital, YouTube remains the ad platform marketers most prefer, while, for consumers, Amazon and TikTok share the top spot.
Kantar’s findings reveal that a net 26% of marketers have reported plans to reduce ad spend on X in 2025, the biggest recorded pullback from any major global ad platform.
Marketers’ trust in ads on X, historically low, has decreased further under Musk’s leadership, from 22% in 2022 to 12% in 2024. Only 4% of marketers think ads on X provide brand safety (in contrast to Google, which comes top for brand safety at 39%).
X also scores outside of the global top ten for trust and for the perception of how innovative advertising on the platform is. This contrasts with TikTok, the most innovative advertising publisher for the fifth consecutive year, and YouTube, the most trusted.
Kantar global thought leadership director for media Gonca Bubani said: “Advertisers have been moving their marketing spend away from X for several years. The stark acceleration of this trend in the past 12 months means a turnaround currently seems unlikely.
“Marketers are brand custodians and need to trust the platforms they use. 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.”
This year, Amazon and TikTok are a first-place tie for consumer preference, with Kantar’s research finding Amazon ads are perceived as being more relevant and useful, whereas TikTok ads are perceived as more fun. However, neither brand features in the top five ranking among marketers.
Netflix, measured by Kantar as an ad platform for the first time this year, achieves a top five position among both consumers and marketers, helped by its top-three position for brand safety among marketers. YouTube has solidified its position as the top choice for marketers.
Kantar’s 2024 analysis shows that point-of-sale (PoS) ads hold the top spot, replacing sponsored events in terms of consumer preference. PoS ads are seen as particularly trustworthy and useful and do not hold negative connotations such as being intrusive. Other favoured channels include cinema ads, sponsored events, newspaper ads and out-of-home advertising.
The research also offers a comprehensive view of the evolving attitudes of marketers and consumers in response to the changing media landscape.
These highlight the mixed attitudes towards GenAI. Some 62% of consumers and 68% of marketers are positive about GenAI more broadly, but the same feeling doesn’t yet extend to AI-generated advertising. While most marketers (71%) are not bothered by AI-generated ads consumers are not so sure yet: two in five (41%) say AI-generated ads bother them.
However, there is better news for advertisers in the rise of consumer receptivity. Consumers have been growing more and more receptive to advertising over the past decade as marketers find the sweet spot for nascent formats through trial and error and consumers are normalised to seeing ads on more channels.
Almost half of consumers (47%) are now receptive to ads, up from only 24% in 2020. The increase of 9 percentage points on last year (38%) is the highest change since 2020.
Finally, the study finds that generational stereotypes are a myth. The brands most preferred by consumers vary significantly and there are some surprises: Gen Z prefers ads on Amazon, Facebook and Google, and among Millennials and Gen X, Snapchat comes out on top. Older generations also welcome ads on TikTok, which appears in the top three among both Gen X and Baby Boomers.
Bubani concluded: “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.
“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.”
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