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What Does to Twitter's Rebrand to 'X' Mean for Brands?
Is Elon impulsive or on to something?
Jordan Scheltgen
July 27, 2023
Earlier this week, Elon Musk made the decision to rebrand Twitter to X.
After crowdsourcing a logo, he made the change official, and a series of tweets from Twitter X executives followed explaining the move.
Not sure what subtle clues gave it way, but I like the letter X
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
9:55 AM • Jul 23, 2023
And although Elon has had a 20+ year infatuation with the letter X, this move was outright impulsive and could potentially cost X.com serious revenue.
Let me explain.
The rebrand itself, in a vacuum, is not that big of a deal. Brands do this, and users whine for a few weeks before adopting the new name, colors, logo, etc.
But this isn’t in a vacuum.
Right now, Twitter/X needs stability and a clear North Star for the platform–not chaos.
Because advertisers don’t like chaos. In a year where ad budgets are getting as tight as my jeans from college, companies can’t afford to deploy capital into unpredictable companies.
And that’s exactly what Elon and Twitter are: unpredictable. This isn’t to say there hasn’t been some good on the platform since he took over (monetizing verification was smart), but the haphazard approach to deploying/restricting features has been troubling.
What does the future of the platform hold?
Twitter’s greatest strength is its network effect. Users care about being able to follow/interact with the people of their choosing. Executive appointments and ownership changes don’t matter if the platform continues to serve its users.
But, if the platform’s North Star continues to be revenue, putting up blockades at every point of the app until users purchase Twitter Blue, the platform is in for a slow death.
What should brands do?
My suggestion would be for most brands to stay in a holding pattern on Twitter. You can’t be sure what’s going to happen in the next three to six months on the platform, so keeping a presence while not investing too much capital into ads is what I suggest for 99% of brands.
What is your brand doing on X moving forward? Shoot me an email back and I’ll share the responses on next week’s newsletter.
