Twitter’s chief marketing officer Leslie Berland has quit. Prior to joining Twitter in 2016, Berland was the executive vice president, global advertising, marketing and digital partnerships at American Express. She worked with the brand for 10 years. As per Bloomberg, Berland was the executive who gave Elon Musk his first tour of the office as his $44 billion deal was finalized last week.
According to a New York Times report, the company’s chief customer officer, the head of people and diversity, and the head of product — have also departed. Jean-Philippe Maheu, Twitter’s vice president of global client solutions, has exited too.
Currently, marketers across the globe are concerned about how the new leadership will pan out for advertising on the platform. 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising. A day before the acquisition, Musk had told Twitter advertisers in a note that he aspires for the microblogging site to be the most respected advertising platform in the world.
However, advertising agencies are advising marketers to be cautious. For instance, advertising giant Interpublic Group has recommended clients of IPG Mediabrands to suspend all paid advertising on Twitter for at least a week. The network has asked its clients to wait for more clarity on the social network’s plans for trust and safety.
The user experience on Twitter is already undergoing significant changes. To begin with, Twitter will begin charging $8 a month in the US for its Twitter Blue service. This will give subscribers the much-coveted “verified” badge. Musk revealed the perks of paying a monthly subscription fee for a ‘blue tick’ as he seeks to boost subscriptions and make the social media network less reliant on ads. Users and advertisers have mixed reactions to these sudden changes.
According to research by the Network Contagion Research Institute, by the time Musk closed the deal on October 28, 2022, racist and other hateful tweets had begun to plague the plaform at much higher levels than usual. At a time when the social, economic, and political environment of the world is volatile, marketers are being extra careful about what they say and where they are seen. Will Musk’s new pitch convince marketers to stay back on the platform or will they log out in panic? Only Musk’s Tweets will tell us.