Twitter has resorted to classic sales promotion techniques to bring back major advertisers, offering buy one get one free deals (BOGOFs) by matching ad spend up to $250,000 for brands that sign up to the beleaguered platform.
That is according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which claims to have seen email correspondence between advertisers and the social media site; earlier this month Twitter also announced that it would relax its total ban on political ads.
But marketers have been concerned about brand safety, with the growing amount of disinformation and hate posts now appearing.
The number of blue-chip advertisers which have pulled out of Twitter has been well documented; more than 50 companies paused ads – including Volkswagen, Audi, Balenciaga, Carlsberg, Pfizer, Macy’s and United Airlines – following Elon Musk’s controversial $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover of the platform in October last year. Meanwhile, marketing groups IPG, WPP and Omnicom all advised their clients to follow suit.
Under the previous regime, advertising made up about 90% of the site’s revenue.
A recent ad spending report from Standard Media Index (SMI) found in November 2022, the first full month of Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter’s ad spending dropped by 46% compared to the previous year.
It also found marketers that had pre-booked ads on the platform for the final two months of 2022 had pulled back on their commitment. In addition, SMI reports a smaller amount of future ad bookings on Twitter for January and February 2023 compared to previous years.
Whether Twitter’s BOGOF plan will encourage them to return, remains to be seen…
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