X Schedules First Meeting of Latest ‘Client Council’ to Reassure Ad Partners

After recently announcing that it could be bringing back its “client council” to supply input into key ad policy decisions within the app, X has now scheduled the primary meeting of the brand new group, which is able to provide a few of X’s biggest ad partners with the chance to boost any questions or concerns that they could have concerning the re-named platform, and its future direction under CEO Linda Yaccarino and owner Elon Musk.

X’s Client Council will provide direct linkage between key decision-makers, enabling X to supply more insight into its work to enhance the platform, and for partners to ask questions on its progress and development on various fronts.

From there, they’ll give you the option to make more informed decisions about their ad spend. And with X’s ad revenue still down by around 50% since Elon Musk purchased the app, it has some work ahead of it to reassure ad partners concerning the safety of its latest “Freedom of Speech, Not Freedom of Reach” approach.

Many advertisers paused their spend after Musk purchased the platform, amid his various vows to permit more free and open speech within the app, even when some people would find such to be offensive. Since then, Musk has reduced X’s moderation capability by eliminating 80% of the corporate’s staff, softened its policy stances on misinformation and hate speech, and allowed many previously banned users back on the app under what he’s called an ‘amnesty’.

Musk’s original plan was to cut back X’s reliance on ad revenue by making a much bigger push on subscriptions, which might then enable him to reshape the platform’s rules nevertheless he liked, as he would now not be beholden to ad partners’ concerns. But that hasn’t worked out, with lower than 0.5% of X users signing on to X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue), despite X continually attempting to push users towards its verification offering.

That signifies that X is indeed still reliant on ad spend, which is why it’s now looking to boost its appeal to brand partners, and ensure they continue to be on board with its plan.

Because in the event that they don’t, X won’t survive. And as such, you’ll be able to expect this forum to have a minimum of some sway in future platform decisions.

However, such risks haven’t modified Elon’s own approach, who continues to propose changes which might be unpopular with each users and types alike. Musk’s most up-to-date announcement was that X shall be removing the choice to dam users, which is each in violation of app hosting rules, and can be a major risk for brand safety.

That forced Yaccarino into damage control, with the intention to reassure users that the team does have a plan.

But they likely don’t, and it’ll be interesting to see how Yaccarino will give you the option to take care of the continuing balance of managing ad partner expectations, while also appeasing Elon’s various whims.

It looks like an unenviable position, but to date, Yaccarino has been towing the corporate line, as she continues to re-state her support for Musk’s “provocative” leadership style.

The Client Council could find yourself being a wake-up call for Yaccarino on this respect, especially if the participants don’t buy what X is selling, by way of its stated brand safety benchmarks and achievements.

Essentially, no one believes the claim that 99.99% of all Tweet impressions are actually going to content that doesn’t violate the platform’s rules. 

I think this, and various other dubious stats, will come under more scrutiny at next month’s meeting.