The future of X: winning back advertisers, breaking the news & building the world’s most powerful AI

25:16Anyway, but it's just funny to see like brands, you know, Audi clearly won that one, but M &S was struggling to find their tone of voice. How do we deal with this? Our lawyers are telling us we can't talk about it and you know you know it it is funny i mean that's a great example and i i'm sorry i missed that one but i do think brands that spar with each other i guess that's the way i would put it but as long as it has i think a light tone to it i think uh you know fans will engage no one wants it to get nasty and down to the real you know legal brass tacks but if you can have fun with it and will will a brand win out over another yeah public sentiment will sort of rule the day but you know good for mns for getting in there trying to stand up for what they thought was right and public sentiment you know went without aldi but i i think that's you know interesting territory for even a brand marketer to think about but using social media to sort of fight back absolutely and and if you do it in a way that has a sense of humor i think nine times out of ten both sides actually kind of win yeah you couldn't be more right now talking about brands obviously one of the challenges you faced over the last couple of years is advertisers taking their spend off the platform.

26:26And I think advertising revenue was down 40, 50%, I think a couple of years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for reminding us. Sorry about that. Bring the tone down a little bit. Yeah, exactly. And I know in the UK, I think it's different here, but kind of trust and, you know, trust in the platform is down a lot last year. And if I were to phone up the, let's say, the top 10 people I know in media, most of them would say their main concern with X would be brand safety, right? So what's kind of happened in the last kind of couple of years to address that? And where are advertisers now? I mean, I know some big high profile advertisers, Disney, Apple, you know, Unilever left the platform a couple of years ago.

27:03Where are you in terms of kind of winning them back? Yeah, such a big question. No, no, it is an important one. Because it's certainly going to be part of our history. We're always going to have to, I think, remember. And it was true after acquisition, when Elon Musk bought the platform, a lot of advertisers did leave for multiple reasons. One of the biggest was that, yes, we did remove sort of that centralized content moderation from the platform and went to community notes. Today, community notes, which I previously said has about a million people within that group of community noters, has now been adopted by YouTube.

27:39It's been adopted now by Meta, who announced that in January at CES, and now just recently of TikTok. So what was sort of this bizarre way of moderating the platform has now become sort of the industry standard, which we're thrilled about. We think that's really fantastic, and we'll continue to improve community notes. With input now from other social media platforms, we put updates on our platform on how it constantly can be improved, and that's fantastic. The other part of it is that we have partnerships now with IAS and Double Verify that help us with our brand safety. We're happy to report that our brand safety and brand sustainability are in the upper 90s.

28:20So we're on par with our other platforms now. And then 96 out of the top 100 advertisers are back, which is really great. Now, some of that is timing. There were a lot of things. We listened. Our CEO, Lindy Acarino, she is incredible with what she's done to help, I think, have this one-to-one conversation with top advertisers and holding companies about the fuller picture of what is available to them on X. We have incredible reach with a huge user base. And then we have a lot of tools in place to really make it a very interesting place for advertisers to show up. And so she's been having that hard conversation.

29:00Even still in the background, we were doing the hard work that advertisers had asked us to do. And that's been the biggest thing is listening to what the issues were and having us respond as a platform. And we have done a lot of that hard work. So we have some big advertisers who are back. And we're finding out now that other advertisers are like, wait a minute. If XYZ is on the platform, maybe I need to be there too. So we have some bold CMOs who, you know, whether they had budgets that allowed them to do innovation or some kind of testing on the platform, they've made some big bets with us and they have turned out to be really fantastic.

29:37And so now we're getting a new audience of advertisers to lean in and said, help me understand how I can show up too. So I think it's, we're certainly not at what we are pre-acquisition levels of advertising spend, but we're eking our way up. And, you know, we've had a new updated valuation for the platform, which was on par to what it was when Elon purchased it. So we're in good fiscal health. We feel very bullish on the future and we feel really good about where we are right now. I mean, kudos on community notes. I just think it's a really clever, smart thing to do. I think I can't remember the exact detail.

30:13I'm sure I saw Mark Zuckerberg talk about if you if you tried to centrally moderate every content across Meta, he'd have to spend billions in terms of employing an entire army. So it just it just makes common sense, doesn't it? You need to find a different mechanism to more effectively, you know, kind of moderate content. I agree. And I think it also comes back to maybe what you said earlier about, you know, having multiple voices with multiple points of view provide that moderation. So I think that's really helpful. I mean, it is true with community notes. It really helps for people who have posted and that they got a community note.

30:51They're 60 % less likely to repost it. And then the original author of it is 80 % likely to delete it. So it is freedom of speech without freedom of reach. And it is this global platform of community noters that is helping it be, you know, a good safe place for content which then means it's a good place for brands to show up you mentioned deal on getting involved in politics as well i think that's a really big part of this that the whole situation because there's a really interesting bit of research actually done in the uk just after brexit so brexit was our big kind of divisive moment where you know every everyone fell down rather than falling down left and right uh wing lines everyone was like either your leave or remain it was really fascinating um these couple of guys andrew tenser and ian murray did a brilliant bit of research called the empathy delusion and it's quite fascinating that what they identified is that people that work in advertising and marketing are much a much much more likely to be remain voters almost entirely remain voters but they also in terms of moral frameworks were far more individualistic and driven by fairness of the individual and less about the kind of group society cohesion and where that played out was they were they'd be far more less likely to support somebody on the other side than the normal person in the street so most people if you ask them would be very happy to go for a drink or, you know, see their son or daughter date someone who, you know, supported the other side of the argument.

32:13But in advertising and marketing, they really wouldn't. They'd be very unlikely to do that because they'd let the politics get in the way of the transaction. So I think it was interesting that that's, you know, given that that's the audience making, deciding on the spend, making decisions on where that goes. I think that plays out a lot with this. And I know there's similar data in the US about where left versus right and whether they feel, you know, happy to have a dinner, have a meal with someone of the opposite persuasion and so on. The same sort of dynamic plays out, doesn't it? Yeah, 100 % true.

32:41I do think this is an interesting study. And I hadn't heard that until you had told me about it. I do see this actually in some of my own personal interactions with other CMOs. It's really, I think, a block. I think it's a hard thing to explain to someone like, look, your personal bias interest is not good for the ultimate benefit of the brand or service that you're representing and trying to grow. You have users on this platform, and a lot of them. And they're not all bad people. They do sit on both sides of the aisle. So why would you not think about it in a new and fresh way? I think that bias is actually really true.

33:21And I think it's a hard thing for CMOs to overcome. But you have to remove yourself. There was a quote recently that someone said, and I'm going to butcher it, so I'm going to surmise it. But it was basically the reason why great creative dies is because everyone's dying to have an opinion. And I think opinions need to actually be removed from the conversation. Data is also a great one to drive a lot of decisions and, you know, honest conversation about what's reality and what's perception. And again, I go back to that hard work that Linda Yaccarino did with some of these brands and holding companies was like, let me hear your issues.

33:59Here's where we really are as a platform. And what else do I need to do to help overcome your concerns? And it's breaking down those barriers. And that's just, you know, X in particular of how we're overcoming some of that bias. But it's true. There are sometimes individuals that can keep, you know, us moving forward with advertisers, which is actually a shame because you're actually missing out on a very engaged audience. Well, it's almost like rule number one in marketing is you are not the customer. It starts, doesn't it, with understanding your customer. And it's interesting you say in terms of people missing out, presumably then advertisers that have come back to the platform have maybe got an advantage because it's a bit like game theory.

34:35If everyone else is not moving and you're the one to move, presumably some advantages to doing that. Absolutely. And we've had some great partners in our advertising community that have come back and come back in a strong way, doing very bold things, doing very creative things with us. The portals have allowed us to do a lot of things where we've been able to help brands come back. And they're seeing huge gains in some of those decisions. And I think now it's the same thing that was true before, right? People were leaving the platform, oh, maybe I need to, too. Now it's people are coming back.

35:07And we see that brands are having a little bit of FOMO saying, actually, maybe I need to find out more here. So I think that's a good thing. But I mean, kudos to the brands that actually stepped in first and said, let me give this a try, because they saw that the highly engaged audience, plus all the innovation on the platform, there there is just a place for for x in their media buy and and that's that's what we want now another thing elon's famous for i think is um uh certainly in terms of managing tesla is not advertising and uh you know there's always a big debate breaks my heart breaks my heart there's always a big debate isn't there in marketing well you know can you survive that advertising well look at tesla it's you know become the most valued car company in the world without advertising i've always argued though that elon is a media channel in his own rights and he did lots of promotion in different ways.

35:54It was different than traditional advertising. But there was a lot of promotion. And he himself was part of that. I mean, he's associated with the Tesla brand. But yes, as a true brand marketer, it breaks my heart just a wee bit. But I do understand it. But with that in mind, I was just curious to know, from your point of view, what marketing-wise, in terms of X and the future of X, what's your plan to market it? Because you're marketing to marketers, right? Which is a curious, yeah. Yeah. So my job is really two parts. One part has been the part I've been living and breathing since I came here six and a half months ago, which is what we would call sales enablement.

36:34So yes, marketing to the marketers, supporting our sales team and all of the materials that they need, events and so on that help fuel that conversation, which is a huge, huge thing to do. But there is this other other part that is part of the remit too, which is how do we actually grow our platform beyond our current monthly active users? And the big way that we're gonna be able to do that is if eventually we go off our own platform and we speak to people who actually don't have us as part of their repertoire of social media platforms they go to every day. So we have been working in the background on a brand campaign.

37:11We're not quite ready to launch it. We have some individuals that we need to bring into that conversation. I think it's fantastic. I think it's actually what we need because when Twitter was switched from Twitter to X and then the vision of the Everything app was set out, there's a lot of difference between who we were before and who we are today. And a lot of people don't know that. A lot of people don't know how to really use the platform to their best benefit. And so we like to educate but also get people excited about the power of the platform and why you should do it. You know, really, it's about you're positioned as whatever is breaking in culture, you have to go check X.

37:50There's no surrogate for that. There's no other social media platform that's going to give you that information. So we have this beautiful campaign. We hope to launch it someday. As a brand marketer, I'm salivating to do it because I know it'll have huge impact. I think people will get it instantly and be excited about what the platform actually delivers. But yeah, there's a lot of hard work yet to be done there and yet to be manifested. And so, you know, we hope. We hope that we'll be able to do it. It's a good point about changing the conversation, isn't it? Because most of the conversation has been about job cuts or brand safety or Elon's political points of view.

38:25And you kind of need to shift, don't you, to this is the future and this is how we kind of see the platform. Yeah, those headlines seem to take over. They do, don't they? Which is really about the, you know, the blocking and tackling of how to run a company. which honestly, to the credit, it is a very fiscally sound company. You know, we were about 8 ,000 people, I believe, when he purchased the platform. We're hovering around 1 ,300. You know, we are scrappy and we're lean. We don't say we're a startup because we were a company before, but we are very much like a restart company. So we work really hard every day trying to achieve a lot of goals at the same time.

39:01And it's like goals go this way and then you all move forward. There's not one individually. But it's in the spirit of becoming fiscally sound and I think to do great things, big, bold things. And, you know, then the real part of the company, the real innovation, the actual engagement that you get on the platform, that conversation becomes secondary because everybody's talking about what happened when the acquisition happened. I mean, that's been two years now. So we're ready to have a different conversation and let people know behind the curtain how much has been done. I don't think there's been as much innovation that's been done on any social media platform as much as there's been on X.

39:37It's just so much to talk about, which is why we do meetings like the Client Council, which we did in New York. We're about ready to do one in London in June ahead of CanLion. And, you know, we just need more people to understand about everything that has been done in the spirit of making this, you know, one of the most, I think, positive and foundational social media platforms that people can engage with. Yeah. You mentioned the everything app as well. What's included in the everything? Everything. Literally. There's been a lot. I mean, one has been bringing video more forward. So now we have the video tab, but we have new formats like vertical video and other types of video that really helps brands show up in a much more engaged way on the platform.

40:24So huge innovation, which is video. Next is developments on potential things like XTV, which is still in development, but that could actually cast your X experience on your TV screen a little bit like a YouTube experience, I've been told, which would be great. We are about ready to launch this year XMoney. Visa is a partner in that. That'll simulate like a peer-to-peer payment type application where you can exchange money through a section on the app. And you could actually earn interest on the money that you hold within the app, which will be really interesting and exciting. A whole new dynamic of how money can exchange within the app, which hasn't really been done before.

41:08And then we're working towards things which we're now calling XDM, which is more of a private conversation part of the app, which will be another great thing that's coming. So just a lot of innovation on user engagement. And, of course, then the X portals are huge. And then we haven't even talked about X originals, which that part of the company is just original content that we developed just for X. so we've developed 17 shows since this division has been started which has been about a year ago but we have incredible creators like anthony pompliano who has the the show the desk from anthony pompliano that's just for x and then he shares clips on other platforms and then chloe in wonderland which her show is blowing up she has about 30 million followers i think there's over 120 million views of her shows.

42:04I think I have that stat right. I mean, it's massive to have a celebrity like that. And we are about to announce, I couldn't say it today on this show, which I wish I could, but another huge celebrity who's going to do another show on the platform, which is going to be fantastic. So all of that is other innovation that's happening. And then all of our partnerships with all of the sports leagues is continuous. So, you know, that's a lot of work that's being done in real time. And then, you know, constant innovation on our ads manager portion of the platform, which allows advertiser to create better and more effective ads using Grok, which is the agent for XAI that's integrated into our platform, which is giving a lot more ROI and just speed to market, giving real results on how those campaigns are working in real time.

42:50So tons of work with an incredible team across the country that is just trying to make this the best platform possible. I've noticed the Grok integration has been really smart as well. Something I've noticed, I don't know if you see it across the platform, but if there's anyone who is unsure about a post, they just literally just go, ask Grok, is this real? And then you just get this really intelligent answer, citing different sources and explain. So I can really see that. I mean, it's a simple example, but that's another example of content. It's actually a very utilitarian way to use it. But AI is rapidly becoming the most fascinating thing that I think we're seeing, not just on our platform, but across the board.

43:30You know, a link-based search is, I mean, if you're not using AI and don't see the power of it, it would be hard to go back to, honestly, just a regular Google search. Well, they have their own AI. The thing that's interesting about Grok is that it's fueled by XAI, which is now the largest supercomputer in the world. They call it Colossus. It sits in Memphis, Tennessee in the United States. It was literally started and working in 122 days, which is phenomenal. I think a normal company might have taken years to do that. And it started with 100 ,000 GPUs rapidly within three months, went to 200 ,000.

44:13I think by 2026, it'll be over a million. So that incredible computer power is what's actually fueling the intelligence that you see in the application like you just mentioned, which is really incredible. And the thing that makes now X really unique and XAI really unique is that XAI is learning from a dynamic, real-time, culturally relevant platform that is happening with real human conversation. All the other large language models are learning on a static database. So if you, like, for example, the way they learn is, you know, latest information. You have to wait for someone to write an article and post it to the Internet where XAI has the benefit because of our relationship with sister companies now being merged closer together.

45:02You're getting that in real time. So it's rapid. That's so I mean, you could ask about something about the Pope. Let's just like Pope Leo the 14th on the moment it's happening. And you would probably have real time information coming up on Grok. So the power is really immense. And we're really excited about what it's going to do next. The innovation behind that team is really fantastic. And it's a game changer. And so it's rapidly becoming, you know, the leading reasoning AI out of the group. While ChatGPT has the most users because it's been around for a couple of years, we think that XAI and Grok will definitely start taking some leadership position there.

45:43What's that point? I think I saw a tweet from Elon showing that where Grok was ranked maybe a year ago, I think it was a year ago to now, from I think it was 10, 12th place or something up to second. And the point he made, which I totally agree with, is momentum is everything. Speed to market. Yeah, exactly. Speed and momentum is what predicts kind of future success. Yeah, it's really great. It's, it is really fair. And it's, you know, it's truth seeking. And that's why the real conversation on the platform is helping the actual agent, you know, be one of one of the best is because it's actually engaging in real time conversation.

46:19That's what people, I think, don't realize is that AI is not like this homogenous thing where they all do the same thing. They've got inbuilt biases themselves that are quite radically different. Actually, when you go and put the same prompt in a few different engines, how different you can get the answers. How different you can get the answers. So this is really exciting territory. So we'll see. You know, everyone has eyes on AI. Yeah. And we certainly have our hand in it, too. And we are thrilled about the partnership and how much smarter it's just going to make X for not just users. It'll make your timeline very personalized.

46:53We call it unregrettable user seconds. So that means it's just so much. It's so personalized to you. It's going to feel great. But there's a lot to benefit the advertisers, too. Just the scale of the platform. But now you get the personalization with doing AI targeting, AI audiences, the way that we can help you build your actual ad plans. but it's also giving you, you know, speed to market, which actually helps with your ROI. So, I mean, just the power of all of that is just mind blowing. It's just mind blowing. Well, maybe just to finish up, let's quickly talk about top tips. If you're an advertiser or top tips, if you're on the platform as a creator, what would your advice to people be to take advantage of it as an advertiser or as a creator?

47:34Well, first of all, get on X. That would be my first thing as just a user. We need And more people on the platform, the better. But if you don't really engage in the platform, you don't really know how to use it. And we have found that. We have some CMOs who were a little delinquent on being on the platform. We had to help them get back on and help them understand how to really take full advantage of it. So there's that. I would say for advertisers, for the last couple of years, because of our journey of where we've been, they tend to purchase advertising in key moments. Super Bowl, key sports events, or awards show, Met Gala.

48:07which was amazing. Rihanna showed the world her baby bump. And that tends to be like, you're on, you're off. You're on, you're off. And it's hard to upstart that. What you really could do is take advantage of understanding who your audiences are, which they are on our platform, finding those and having a consistent presence on the platform, and then spiking with these moments. So you have both. It's sort of an and strategy, not an or. So we're having deep dialogues with all of our advertisers on how they can take advantage of that and how to do it in a way that they can scale it and have positive ROI with also brand lift and performance.

48:42So there's a full suite of products there to help advertisers do that. So that's for our advertisers and that's ongoing. And we will continue to listen to what the advertisers want and, you know, be delivering on, you know, what that can actually offer them. From content creator strategy, I would say we are in still our development phases on what that looks like. Other platforms do some incredible tools for creators, which is great. And we look at those and think we need to replicate something similar for us on X. All of that, hopefully by the end of the year, will be a whole new content creator strategy with tools and monetization that equals our other social media platforms.

49:26So again, we have sort of a working task force that's going against that and understanding how important those creators are. We have some incredible creators today who have sort of figured out how the best way to use the platform, but for the greater scale of true creators and influencers and key markets, especially ones like EMEA, we could probably do a better job on delivering, I think, best in market type of capabilities. So we're working on that. And, you know, that's part of our punch list of what we have to do as a platform. And, you know, I think that's the spirit of X in general is that we are never stopping.

50:01We are always listening and we are always responding and we'll ever improve the platform day after day. And I think everyone at X actually has that positive attitude. And, you know, it's an organic moving social media site. I mean, it'll never be, the work will never be done, which is really interesting. And, but yeah, those are great things that are upcoming and we're excited to be launching that really soon. Amazing. And it sounds very exciting. thank you for sharing it all with us and congratulations on everything that's been going on it's been great to hear about it great thank you so much great being here thank you thank you thank you very much for listening or watching uncensored cmo i hope you enjoyed that if you did please do hit the subscribe button wherever you get your podcast if you're watching hit subscribe there as well i'd also love to get a review reviews make a big difference on other people discovering the show so please do leave a review wherever you get your podcast if you want And contact me, you can do.

50:55I'm over on X at Uncensored CMO or on LinkedIn, where I'm under my own name, John Evans. Thanks for listening and watching. I'll see you next time.