Trademarks spend symbolic amounts on X ads to keep elon musk happy

The major brands allocate small amounts of their advertising budget for Elon Musk’s X, and seek to avoid being seen as boycotting the social media platform and operating general repercussions with its billionaire owner.

Several CEOs of Marketing at Financial Times told the companies that the companies felt pressure to spend a symbolic amount on X after the prominent role of Musk in the administration of US President Donald Trump.

They said that Musk’s endeavor to take legal measures against the groups that stopped declaring since it raised the acquisition of $ 44 billion in late 2022. X added about half of the decorations of companies to its case, including Shell, Nestle, Pinterest and LEGE.

“Any amount is enough to stay outside the list of rioters,” said Le Pascalis, CEO of AJL Marketing Consulting Consulting and former Bank of America.

“The reason is not due to the fact that the risk of brand safety has ended. But the biggest danger is that the suspension (from Musk) in the press sends the low price of your arrow, and instead of a risk of millions of dollars, you are facing a risk of millions of dollars.”

This step comes as X was purchased this week by the Musk for Xai Intelligence Group in a deal that appreciates the social media platform at $ 45 billion, including debt. Musk said that he will combine data, models and talents for the two companies.

Investors were raised due to the proximity of Musk to the Trump administration, as well as signs that his approach to reducing costs was effective and that the revenues were improving.

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of Musk and X, set a goal aimed at strengthening advertising revenues to 2022 levels, according to two people familiar with this issue. The people said that this is the minimum that X should bring without a blow to a “boycott” or avoid the platform for its political bending.

According to Emarketer data, X’s revenues will increase to $ 2.3 billion this year compared to $ 1.9 billion a year ago. However, global sales were in 2022, when the group was known as Twitter and was seized by Musk, $ 4.1 billion.

The total US advertising spending on X decreased by 2 percent in the first two months of 2025 compared to a year ago, according to the data of the Market Intelligence sensors tower, despite the return of groups like Hulu and the last Unilever.

American Express also joined the platform this year, but the spending of its advertisement has decreased by about 80 percent compared to the first quarter of 2022, Sensor Tower said.

However, four large advertising agencies-WPP, OMNICOM, Interpublic Group and Publicis-agreed recently, or in talks, to determine the annual spending goals with X in the so-called “submitted deals”, where advertisers are committed to buying holes in advance.

X, WPP, OMNICOM and PUBLICIS rejected the comment. The Interpublic collection did not respond to the comment request.

Fears rose Within the advertising industry after X filed a lawsuit against federal monopoly last summer against Global Alliance for Desidents, a coalition of brands, advertising agencies and some companies including Unilever, accusing them of coordinating a “illegal boycott” under the title of the brand safety initiative. The House of Representatives led by the Republicans also charged similar charges.

UNILIVER was dropped from the X suit after the advertisement on the social media platform in October.

After discussions with their legal team, some WPP employees are now concerned about what they put in writing about X or communicating with video conferences in view of the lawsuit, according to one person familiar with the matter.

Another executive official indicated that the planned integration of $ 13 billion between OMNICOM and Interpublic was delayed by another request to obtain information from US monitoring this month, with a threat to organizational intervention on the deal.

Sensor Tower said that 35 senior advertisers in X in 2025 were not announced on the platform in 2023, which highlighted it “attracts a new group of advertisers.” These included Maga MAMA Shop Paper Sizzle and Caffeine Celsius brand drinks and HIMS Hims & Hers.

Opinion X referred to the increasing number of small brands that use self -service tools, as well as the new artificial intelligence tools offered by X Grok Chatbot to create an AdS campaign.

The person said: “They will return there (to the previous levels of advertising revenues), it will not be the same mixture of advertisers.”

Mark Ben, CEO of the New York -based Staguel Agency, said that X X is a “vibrant revival and increasing platform.”

He added: “The political boycott and things are dissipated because companies realize that taking side and the other is a dangerous place to be.”

In documents obtained by Financial Times, the OMNICOM Media Group Brands group told this year that X was a “convincing opportunity for our customers”, as it promotes improvements in the brand safety as well as displaying its ads, especially new video formats.

It also stated that the potential return on investment was “at its highest level ever”, in part due to the fact that the agency has negotiated the “most suitable discounts” with the platform.

One of the opposing media buyers said: “The idea of ​​a high return to investment is laughing.” “You get what you pay for. If you want cheap, these are cheap and you get.”

“He has not seen an imminent return to the previous range in terms of advertising budgets that are transferred to X,” said Robin Sharrers, CEO of EBIQUITY, who measures the amount of money spent by brands on various platforms.

But he added: “He will not surprise me, personally, if we are at some point in the near future, we will see the president actually calling for advertisers to return to X.”