General Motors temporarily suspends advertising on Twitter. The Spoke person of General Motors told CNBC on friday that the GM is suspending its advertising program on Twitter. This news came after Elon Musk’s takeover the Twitter social media platform.
Statement of GM
The Detroit automaker, a rival to Elon Musk electric vehicle maker Tesla, said that GM is “pausing” it’s advertising as GM will evaluate Twitter’s new direction under Elon Musk. Further, General Motors will continue to use the Twitter platform to interact with customers but not pay for advertising, GM added.
“We are trying to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership of Elon Musk. As is often the case with businesses and significant changes in the media platform, we have temporarily stopped our paid advertising. Our customer relationship on Twitter will continue,” the company said in an emailed statement.
Under CEO Mary Barra, GM was one of the first automakers to announce multi-billion dollar spending to compete effectively with Tesla in the electric battery car segment.
The General Motors sign is seen during an event on January 25, 2022 in Lansing, Michigan. – General Motors will create 4,000 new jobs and retain 1,000, and increase capacity in the production of battery cells and electric trucks.
Statement of Ford Motors
A spokesperson for Ford Motor, another opponent of Tesla, told CNBC that the automaker is not currently advertising on Twitter. They added, “We will continue to evaluate the direction of the platform under the Musk’s ownership.”
However, when shown a screenshot of the promoted tweet by Ford CEO Jim Farley, the spokesperson could not confirm the last time Ford or its affiliates could pay for advertising, including promoted tweets, on the Platform.
Ford continues to engage with customers on Twitter.
Others’ Statements
Other automakers, including Rivian, Stellantis and Alphabet-owned Waymo, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about their plans to suspend advertising or stop using social media at the time. following Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter.
Electric truck maker Nikola said it has no plans to change anything about the platform.
The future direction of Twitter is a major takeover story. Musk said he is a “free speech absolutist,” who will restore President Donald Trump’s account, which was banned for his tweets on Jan 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
Musk said on Friday that he is planning a “ontent moderation council” and won’t restore any accounts or make major content decisions until it is convened. Musk also said in a statement to advertisers this week that he can’t allow Twitter to become “an empty hellscape.”
Henrik Fisker, CEO of EV startup Fisker Inc., deleted his Twitter account earlier this year after the Twitter company accepted Musk’s offer to buy the company and take it private. However, Fisker Inc. continues to use Twitter, which is used by all auto brands for customer engagement and company marketing .
Musk has long boasted that Tesla doesn’t have to pay for traditional advertising, the added cost to the automaker’s brands through the years.
Instead, Tesla will rewards the people who run or are members of Tesla owners’ clubs and other social media influencers who promote the company’s products, stock and Musk on social networks, especially You Tube and Twitter as well as on fan blogs.
They are often granted early access to Tesla products, such as the company’s complete Self Driving Beta software, and given passes to company events where attendance is limited.
In September 2020, Tesla considered a stockholder proposal to launch a series of strategic, paid advertisment to educate the public about its cars and charging network. The Tesla board recommended it, and shareholders voted with the board against starting to pay for traditional advertisment campaigns.
In the company’s annual report for 2021, Tesla wrote: “Historically, Tesla able to generate significant media coverage of our company and our products, and we believe that Tesla will continue to do so. Such media coverage and word of mouth are the current primary drivers of our sales leads and have helped us achieve sales without traditional advertising and at relatively low marketing costs.”
It reported marketing, promotional and advertising costs were “immaterial” for the year ending Dec 31, 2019, 2020 and 2021 in financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CNBC’s John Rosevear contributed to this report.
