It’s an unexpected win for Elon Musk and Twitter.
Less than three months after completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the serial entrepreneur may finally have his biggest win yet: the commitment of big sports advertisers to a succession of juicy deals.
Axios reports that the microblogging website has struck a deal with major advertisers to continue promoting its services, events and products on the platform.
Almost all major US sports leagues — NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, PGA Tour — have decided to continue streaming content on the social network. This content will revolve around promoting their games and related events.
For example, expect the NCAA to commercialize March Madness, the NBA to make the playoffs, and the NFL to bombard Twitter users with ads around the Super Bowl.
‘The Party Goes On’
In addition to the major sports leagues, major sports broadcasters such as TNT and TBS, ESPN, FOX, Univision and Telemundo and Turner sports also plan to engage on Twitter around these sporting events, which often form the core of their best. the audience.
Musk appeared to confirm this information by retweeting the Axios article and commenting: “The party is on.”
The billionaire wrote on Twitter: “The party continues!! 🚀 💫 ♥️.”
The information is a big relief for the billionaire and Twitter, which saw 91% of its revenue come from advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2022, the most recent period for which its earnings are publicly available. The delisted company went private after the Musk deal. As such, it is no longer required to publish its financial results.
Musk’s early days as Twitter owner were marked by an influx of advertisers, most of whom had pulled their ads due to brand safety concerns. They said they wanted to see what direction the tycoon intended to give the platform, which he wants to make a conservative stronghold.
These advertisers were particularly concerned about Musk’s decision to reactivate accounts banned by Twitter 1.0, including those of former President Donald Trump, for violating the firm’s safeguards against xenophobia, racism, Covid-19, anti-Semitism and misinformation.
News Stay on Twitter
Brands worried that Twitter would become a “hellscape” because the self-proclaimed free speech absolutist believes any message is acceptable on the platform as long as it doesn’t break the law. For many advertisers, Musk’s laissez-faire approach runs the risk of spreading hate and xenophobia on the platform, a risk they are unwilling to take and their brands associated with such messaging.
This migration of advertisers completely weakened the financial position of the firm.
On December 24, the serial entrepreneur said: “Twitter isn’t safe yet, it’s just not on the verge of bankruptcy.” “He still has a lot of work to do.”
He warned last November that Twitter was “losing more than $4 million a day.”
He echoed this pessimistic view on December 20 on Twitter Spaces. He said the platform was on track to hit $3 billion in negative cash flow before its drastic cost cuts. At least 5,000 of the company’s 7,500 employees in the state when he arrived were laid off or laid off.
Musk, who personally took on $13 billion in debt to finance the Twitter deal, launched an austerity program. According to many experts, these cost cuts and the relaunch of the Twitter Blue subscription service were not enough to make the platform profitable. So the return of sports advertisers is a big win for Musk, as it could convince other advertisers in other industries to come back.
In addition to sports, media conglomerates such as NBCU, Paramount and Disney also have awards shows, concerts, prime-time shows and Disney’s The Bachelor on ABC, RuPaul’s Axios reports Paramount’s Drag Race on MTV and FOX “The Masked Singer”.
Media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Axios, Bloomberg, Forbes, Conde Nast and USA Today also plan to continue their presence on Twitter and cover key events they partner with, the news agency added.
“Companies in general are missing out on the incredible opportunity Twitter presents to reach customers,” Musk said on Jan. 17. “Just tweet interesting stuff! That’s enough.”