Linda Yaccarino’s vision for Twitter 2.0 emerges

Twitter’s new chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, is preparing a series of measures to bring back advertisers who had abandoned the platform under Elon Musk’s ownership, including introducing a video ads service, wooing more celebrities and raising headcount. 

The former NBCUniversal advertising head, who started as chief executive on June 5, is seeking to launch full-screen, sound-on video ads that would be shown to users scrolling through Twitter’s new short-video feed, according to three people familiar with the situation. 

Yaccarino also plans to meet media partners, publishers and talent agencies in a bid to bring celebrities, political figures and other content creators to the platform.

The hope is that with content from high-profile names, Twitter can sell more advertising, and also facilitate sponsorship and brand deals between advertisers and creators.

In a meeting earlier this month with Twitter’s global sales team, Yaccarino told staffers the company was going to have to work hard to win back the trust of advertisers, according to one person with knowledge of the matter.

She said they would need to deploy “hand-to-hand combat” — persuading big brands in person rather than from behind their desks — as part of the effort, the person said.

“I do believe that they’re going to have superior ad product instantly [under Yaccarino],” said Lou Paskalis, an advertising veteran and chief executive of AJL Advisory. “The issue is content moderation. And it exists in two dimensions. For everybody else. And for Elon.”

“The hope is Linda will create a buffer between what he does, and a brand-safe environment on Twitter,” he added.

This account of Yaccarino’s vision for the platform is based on interviews with Twitter staffers, people familiar with her thinking and brands, advertisers and ad agencies. Twitter declined to comment.

The plans are designed to attract more ad dollars as Twitter seeks to reverse its fortunes under the direction of Yaccarino, an advertising heavyweight known for her industry relationships.

After Musk’s $44bn takeover, many big advertisers slashed or cut ad spending altogether in response to his relaxed stance on content moderation, erratic posts and unorthodox leadership style. This wiped about 50 per cent off Twitter’s $5bn-a-year revenues, Musk has said.

Even before the takeover, Twitter was criticised by advertisers and investors for sluggish product innovation and having a weaker ads offering than peers such as Facebook parent Meta and TikTok.

Twitter’s new ad format, which is still in beta stage, is part of a renewed focus on video. It introduced the ability to support longer-form video earlier this year before launching a TikTok-style short-video feed last week.

Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson already has a new show on Twitter. The rightwing TV pundit is a divisive figure in keeping with Musk’s desire to keep the platform open to views across the political spectrum.

---

Yaccarino, who is based between New York and San Francisco, first emerged as a potential Twitter chief executive when NBCUniversal was working on a partnership with the company for Olympics content. She tried to seek out further tie-ups, forging a close business relationship with Musk in the process.

In her first month on the job, Yaccarino — nicknamed “the velvet hammer” in the ad industry because of her tenacity in dealmaking — is making her presence felt.

She is going to invest in re-building the advertising, sales and partnership team, a requirement she negotiated with Musk upon joining, according to two people familiar with her plans. Musk had caused concern among advertisers and agencies by dismissing at least 80 per cent of Twitter’s workforce, including many of the ad sales team, after taking over, in a significant cost-cutting effort to boost its flagging finances.

Yaccarino told employees at the recent global sales meeting she wanted to engage more with the press, and was planning to present her vision via Twitter Spaces, the platform’s audio feature, in the first week of August, according to one person familiar with the matter.

She and Musk have also told investors that she is planning to make commerce easier on the platform, including taking steps to build a digital wallet. Some of the shopping and creator plans were previously reported by Reuters.

In the longer term, Twitter is in the early days of exploring whether it can wield emerging generative AI technology in its ad business to swiftly generate, test and improve campaigns, following in the footsteps of Google and Meta, who are exploring similar tools. 

Yaccarino has also sought to mend relations with other partners. For example, Twitter has resumed payments to Google Cloud after Musk stopped paying bills with numerous contractors as part of his cost-cutting exercise. The news was first reported by Bloomberg.

She is in talks about a broader partnership with Google that would include advertising and access to some of Twitter’s data, according to someone familiar with the matter, and hopes to similarly renegotiate multiple contracts with tech groups such as Amazon, Salesforce and IBM into single broader partnerships.

Above all, Yaccarino has the tricky task of persuading brands that their content will not run alongside harmful material, while maintaining Musk’s moderation-light bent. Twitter has its own technology to ensure marketing does not appear next to specific keywords or content from certain accounts, and claims the amount of toxic content has been reduced, but is seeking ways to prove this to advertisers.

Musk has said that most advertisers have either “come back or they said they will come back . . . with a few exceptions”. According to data from Sensor Tower, between November 2022 and May, 60 of the top 100 US advertisers paused advertising on Twitter for at least one month. Of these, 17 have resumed advertising.

The company had a small presence at the Cannes advertising festival last week led by Chris Riedy, its vice-president of global advertising sales, who announced before the event that Twitter was soliciting bids from third parties offering services that “give advertisers more control and transparency on the context in which their ads serve”. The company has received about 20 proposals, one person familiar with the bidding said.

Many brands see Yaccarino’s appointment as a boon for Twitter. The head of one big advertising agency said she had been in contact “straight away”, and would have “a big and fast impact on the way Twitter goes to market, particularly with clients”. 

Others remain sceptical, warning of the risk that Musk interferes with her plans, and claim that the platform is still overrun with harmful content. Two large corporations said they were holding off from returning to Twitter due to concerns over Musk’s behaviour and whether his edgy tweets align with the tone they wish for their brands.

“Either [Twitter and Yaccarino] turn this around and make a U-turn on the revenue trend and advertising within the next six to 12 months,” said the chief executive of another advertising group. “[But] if that does not happen until mid to end 2024, I think this is going to be a very dangerous and slippery path downwards.”

Additional reporting by Daniel Thomas in London and Richard Waters in San Francisco