Here’s some good news for Twitter--WPP media arm GroupM has taken Twitter off its “high risk” list of channels and platforms to advertise on, according to sources.
The Financial Times broke the story late Thursday. Group M declined to comment.
Twitter’s revenue has been decimated since Elon Musk acquired the platform last year as many advertisers have bailed due to brand safety concerns. The Times said the social network’s revenue is down by 50% from $5 billion.
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Apparently, a lot of advertisers didn’t have much faith that Twitter would not become a “Hellscape,” as Musk promised, after cutting the staff back by about 80%. Including most of its communications team, making it difficult to get a comment from Twitter for this story.
GroupM didn’t comment for the Times story. But according to the piece GroupM has been heartened by Twitter’s effort to “repopulate” some of its leadership team. The media planning and buying group has also seen some improvement in brand safety and a willingness by Twitter to allow third parties to verify that toxic content had been reduced to pre-acquisition levels.
And GroupM was said to be “cautiously optimistic” about veteran ad sales executive Linda Yaccarino’s appointment as CEO last week. But the point was made that she has a tremendous amount of work to do before the ad community’s faith in Twitter as an ad medium is fully restored.
Omnicom Media Group issued the Times a comment, saying: “We continue to work with Twitter leadership — current and incoming, such as seasoned media professional Linda Yaccarino — ensuring the platform lives up to the high client brand safety standards that we ask every publisher to have in place. Our guidance to clients is not dictated by headlines or speculation but verifiable action. ”
OMG, which along with other holding groups had also urged clients to "pause" Twitter spending, declined to comment further. Other ad groups didn’t respond to requests for comment by the time of this posting.