New Blow For Elon Musk, OMG Marketing Agency Recommends Opting Out Of Ads On Twitter

Omni recommends the termination of advertising on Twitter. (photo: Twitter @Omnicom)

JAKARTA – Twitter has faced another blow, when its new owner, Elon Musk, is trying to convince advertisers to be active again on the social media platform.

Advertising and marketing conglomerate Omnicom Group Inc  has recommended that clients cut their spending on Twitter in the short term. This was stated in their internal memo seen by Reuters.

Omnicom serves more than 5,000 clients in 70 countries, including McDonald's Corp and Apple. The memo did not name the client and it is unclear whether anyone stopped spending ads on Twitter in the immediate aftermath of the memo's appearance.

The move, first reported by tech news site The Verge, emphasizes the growing skepticism among agencies and brands about the future of the micro-blogging site since its acquisition by Elon Musk.

While the Tesla CEO has blamed civil rights groups lobbying Twitter advertisers to boycott the service until Musk clarifies how he will control misinformation and hate speech on the service for a "massive" drop in revenue.

"Twitter's ability to maintain their previous level of brand safety and effectiveness measures appears to be hampered in the near future," according to the OMG memo.

“While OMG believes this is unlikely to result in a significantly higher risk environment for advertisers, the risks associated with unsafe content may increase and should therefore be considered when deciding on the use of the platform,” added OMG.

So far, ad sales represented more than 90% of Twitter's revenue in the second quarter. If the ads do not flow, we can be sure Twitter will lose a lot. Last month, US automaker General Motors Co said it had temporarily suspended paid advertising on Twitter.

Even though what Musk himself has done makes many people curious. Evidently, Musk's overhaul actually caused a spike in installs, spending, and usage for his mobile app.

According to an analysis from Sensor Tower Store Intelligence shared on its official website, after the acquisition was completed, the Twitter mobile app had received 7.6 million installs worldwide.