The targeted addressing of customers on the Internet takes up a large part of the advertising budget for corporations, including VW. To ensure that the message doesn’t backfire, they increasingly pay attention to the right environment.
Volkswagen has joined other companies looking to freeze advertising on Twitter following its takeover by tech billionaire Elon Musk. As a reason, the Wolfsburg called the announcement of the US short message service to revise guidelines for the placement of such content. The VW Group has now “recommended its brands to pause their paid activities on the platform until further notice,” it said. This is not a definitive stop to advertising: “We are monitoring the situation closely and will decide on the next steps depending on how things develop.”
The months of back and forth about Musk’s entry plans on Twitter and his ideas about the future direction and dealing with employees had recently caused a stir. The Tesla and SpaceX boss completed the purchase of the social network for around $44 billion last week.
resistance from users
Musk promised to take action against fake accounts and spam and to make Twitter “the most correct source of information in the world”. On the other hand, he recently spread a link to a conspiracy theory about the attack on the man of the spokeswoman for the US representative house, Paul Pelosi. Musk is also known for his unpredictable communication.
There is also resistance from users against his plans to offer the coveted blue tick for verified accounts as part of a paid subscription. Musk wrote: “To all the whiners, please keep complaining, but it’s $8.” In addition, subscribers should only see half of the usual advertisements. On Twitter, advertisements are played into the user’s timeline in a form that is as personalized as possible.
According to US media reports, around half of Twitter employees could lose their jobs after the takeover. In a circular email signed with “Twitter” to the workforce, there was talk of a “challenging experience” in this context. Musk fired top management and dissolved the board of directors.
General Motors and Pfizer also expose on Twitter
Last week, Volkswagen’s US rival General Motors had already announced that it would at least suspend its advertising activities on the platform. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the food giant General Mills are said to have taken similar steps.
VW has been paying more attention to the environment of its online advertising for some time. There was sharp criticism when an error in an automatic filter program for the display led to an ad being placed on the right-wing US news portal “Breitbart”. The carmaker used the processing of a video spot on Instagram that was perceived as racist as an opportunity to review its internal award processes.
