Elon Musk’s Twitter Lures Super Bowl Advertisers in Welcome Boost

• The Super Bowl may very well be essentially the most lucrative day for Twitter’s ad business since Elon Musk’s takeover.
• Brands including AB InBev and E-Trade are planning Twitter ads on game day, sources said.
• Twitter charges premium prices for the Super Bowl in expectation of a big audience.

A handful of Super Bowl advertisers are poised to spend on Twitter on gameday weekend later this month, handing the beleaguered social media giant’s ad business a much-needed boost, in accordance with industry sources.

Alcohol giant Anheuser-Busch Inbev, insurance firm State Farm, and Morgan Stanley-owned E-Trade are all planning to run ads on the platform on game day, sources said.

AB Inbev will splurge on Twitter ads for brands including Bud Light, Busch Light, and Michelob ULTRA, in accordance with people aware of the matter. The beer giant’s Twitter investment comes because it scales back its Super Bowl TV ad plans this 12 months, ending a 33-year cope with the NFL to be the exclusive alcohol advertiser throughout the industrial breaks.

AB InBev declined to comment. E-Trade didn’t reply to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for State Farm said it has evolved its marketing approach to prioritize “alternate” channels, comparable to Twitter, Twitch, and TikTok.

“As State Farm looks to interact an up-and-coming consumer demographic of younger Millennials and Gen Z, you possibly can expect to see continued innovation on these channels and in these spaces. Actually, they may just have something up their sleeve for the Big Game… ¯_(ツ)_/¯” 

The State Farm spokesperson clarified after this story was originally published that while the corporate’s current Twitter promoting will extend through and beyond the Super Bowl, it hasn’t bought marquee placements and that the content won’t be Super Bowl specific.

This 12 months’s game on February 12 may very well be essentially the most lucrative day for Twitter under its recent ownership because the platform typically charges premium prices for is prime ad spots to achieve the massive audiences expected to follow the motion of their feeds. A promoted trend costs $700,000 throughout the Super Bowl, in comparison with $100,000 on an strange day, Ad Age first reported.

A few of Twitter’s recent efforts to woo advertisers back to the platform have won over “just a few” brands who now plan to move back to Twitter for the Super Bowl, said a serious media agency executive who declined to be identified while discussing client’s marketing plans and didn’t mention specific advertisers. 

Twitter’s depleted promoting team, which shrank as a result of layoffs and resignations, has offered marketers “value adds,” matching their ad spend by as much as 100% in the event that they placed ad bookings of $500,000 by the top of last 12 months, Marketing Brew reported. Similar incentives have continued into 2023, though at lower levels, in accordance with agency sources.

The corporate also recently inked deals with the ad verification firms DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science in a bid to reassure advertisers that their ads appeared next to “brand protected” content on users’ timelines.

“The discounts were a giant incentive, but Twitter can be making progress within the brand safety space, which has been encouraging across the board,” the media agency executive said. “The tide is slowly turning, but we’re still nowhere near figures from years past.”

Twitter’s ad revenue dropped in December by 71% from last 12 months, in accordance with the research company Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending by large agencies. Half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers pulled their spending in the times after Elon Musk took over Twitter, in accordance with a November report from the research center Media Matters.

Twitter didn’t reply to a request for comment.

Upfront Super Bowl bookings on Twitter are still lower than in previous years, in accordance with people aware of the matter. Many advertisers proceed to pause their spending on the platform, following Musk’s October takeover and concerns in regards to the platform’s commitment to content moderation. Sources said a lot of the advertisers planning to purchase ads on Twitter throughout the Super Bowl either never pulled off the platform or had already returned after temporary pauses. 

As an illustration Apple, which Musk said had “fully resumed” promoting on Twitter in December after a brief pause, is predicted to make use of the platform on game day. Apple Music is the official sponsor of the Halftime Show for the primary time this 12 months, with Rihanna set to perform. 

Apple was Twitter’s second biggest-spending US advertiser within the week to January 28, behind NBC Universal, in accordance with data from Sensor Tower. Apple didn’t reply to a request for comment.

To be certain, many big Super Bowl advertisers don’t have any plans to look on Twitter this time around. Ad Age reported last month that some marquee Super Bowl advertisers, no less than certainly one of which might typically spend tons of of hundreds of dollars on the platform throughout the big game, have no plans to advertise on Twitter this 12 months.

Other advertisers plan to post on Twitter and make use of hashtags but not to buy promoting, agency insiders said.

“We’re seeing varied approaches from our clients, some preparing to activate Twitter wholly for the Super Bowl, while others are staying away, either from paid promotion or from each paid and organic,” said a creative agency executive.