Twitter no longer ‘high risk’ after new chief hired, says top ad group

WPP-owned GroupM, one of the world’s top media agencies, has told clients it no longer considers Twitter “high risk”, just days after Elon Musk appointed advertising stalwart Linda Yaccarino as the social media platform’s new chief.

Musk last week announced he hired Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s former head of advertising, to run Twitter while he stays on as chief technology officer and executive chair.

The move marked a push to woo back dozens of major advertisers who deserted the platform over Musk’s unorthodox leadership style and looser content moderation following his $44bn acquisition. The exodus wiped about 50 per cent off Twitter’s $5bn-a-year revenues.

In November, GroupM designated Twitter as “high risk” over its fears about the platform. But on Monday, the agency removed that classification, said three people familiar with the situation, a decision that is likely to encourage its clients to increase ad spending again.

GroupM had been holding back until there was a “return to normalcy” in terms of the amount of harmful content on the platform, which had surged after Musk’s takeover, said one person familiar with the matter.

The person said the group had been waiting for Musk to repopulate his senior leadership team, while it had also been working with Twitter on improving “brand safety” — an industry term referring to the risk that ads appear alongside problematic content and misinformation.

“While the job is not done, there have been material improvements,” the person said, adding they were “cautiously optimistic” about Yaccarino’s appointment.

GroupM declined to comment.

Other advertising agencies said brands were warming to the idea of returning to Twitter.

Sir Martin Sorrell, head of S4 Capital, said it was “early days, but her appointment will encourage clients to have another look”. He added: “Linda will make a difference if given the wiggle room.”

Ben Foster, managing partner for digital at The Kite Factory, said the “hardline approach” taken by some brands of excluding Twitter is beginning to soften.

However, he added: “I would say that Elon and Linda still have their work cut out to fully convince everyone to advertise on the platform at scale.”

Omnicom Media Group said: “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. ”

In his six months at Twitter’s helm, Musk initially sought to curry favour with advertisers, the platform’s main source of revenue, promising them it would not become a “free-for-all hellscape”.

However, many top brands such as Mondelez, Carlsberg and United Airlines paused spending on the platform. In some cases, Musk personally called the chief executives of brands to berate them for curbing advertising, as well as threatening to publicly “name and shame” those involved.

Industry insiders predict Yaccarino will be able to repair relations, noting her reputation for strong relationships as a Madison Avenue veteran.

Her appointment comes as Musk has sought to boost Twitter’s flagging finances, dismissing at least 80 per cent of the workforce, undergoing significant cost-cutting efforts and looking for ways to generate new revenues.

The person familiar with GroupM’s decision said that on top of Yaccarino’s appointment, the agency had been reassured by Musk allowing independent third parties to verify Twitter’s claims that the amount of harmful content on the platform had returned to pre-acquisition levels, that impressions of toxic content were low and that it rarely ran alongside advertising.

Despite its overtures to advertisers, Twitter remains embroiled in a spat with Microsoft. On Thursday, the social media company sent a letter, obtained by the Financial Times, to Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella, accusing the company of using Twitter’s data tool for “unauthorised uses and purposes”.

In the letter, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan requested that Microsoft undertake a “compliance audit” of its past use of Twitter’s application programming interface, or API, which gives access to public Twitter data. It comes after Musk recently introduced a pricey paywall for access to its API, prompting Microsoft to cut the platform from its own social media management tool.

Microsoft confirmed that it had received Thursday’s letter, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Additional reporting by Richard Waters in San Francisco