The marketing layoffs we didn’t expect…

Tesla Lays Off Entire Marketing Team

Tesla just laid off its entire newly-formed, 40-person marketing team—a major shift from the CEO Elon Musk’s advertising push that kicked off less than a year ago.

Some background: Legacy automakers pour billions into advertising annually (Ford spent $2.5B last year and GM spent $3.6B), Tesla has largely limited its marketing efforts to product promotions and Musk's personal social media. 

• Investors asked Musk to focus more on marketing as EV sales growth has slowed.

• Last May, Musk responded by saying that Tesla would “try a little advertising and see where it goes.”

Needless to say, it didn’t go well. As Musk said, the ads were “far too generic—could’ve been any car.” And that’s more than an issue of ad concept—it’s a lack of brand identity. Many marketing experts agree: As EVs go mainstream, Tesla's brand has failed to evolve beyond its early disruptor persona. 

What can we learn from this? Great products alone don't generate sustainable demand—brands need cultural relevance. Tesla excelled in product quality, but neglected brand identity. And even the best marketing talent in the world can’t make up for that in just a few months.

Got any thoughts on this marketing wake-up call? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.

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New Ad Tech Platform Evaluates Publishers

Ad-tech consultancy DeepSee is rolling out a new platform aimed at giving advertisers greater visibility into the quality of digital publishers across the programmatic landscape.

Some context: The ad tech ecosystem has long grappled with issues of transparency and misaligned incentives. DeepSee's portal aims to enable advertisers to make more informed decisions about where their ads run.

So…what’s the tool? The so-called Publisher Research Portal essentially serves as a "nutrition label" for websites, analyzing factors like ad load, potential pirated content, and traffic patterns to help brands gauge a publisher's quality and suitability for their campaigns. Here’s how:

• It leverages data from web crawlers to find potential red flags on publishers' sites, like excessive ad refreshes or indications of artificially inflated traffic. 

• Brands can then set preferences to avoid or optimize for certain criteria.

The bigger picture: The Publisher Research Portal aims to bring greater transparency to the ad ecosystem. As brands look to maximize ROI, these kinds of solutions could become vital.

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Brands Grow YouTube Spend While Agencies Pull Back

YouTube has long been a popular channel for both brands and agencies—but new research shows some notable differences in how the two groups utilize the platform.

Brands are doubling down. Brands are increasing their spending on YouTube marketing, with 85% of brand respondents allocating at least a small portion of their budgets to YouTube—up from 75% six months prior. 

Agencies are pulling back. 68% of agency pros said their clients put any marketing dollars toward YouTube in Q1 2024, down from 73% in Q3 2023 and a significant drop from 88% in Q1 2023.

What’s going on? There are a few possibilities, but this disparity is likely due to differing goals. For brands, impressions reign supreme—38% cited it as their key YouTube metric. Agencies, however, prioritize engagement.

• The top YouTube challenge for agencies is lack of budget. For brands, it's the cost of media.

• More brands prioritize clickthrough, while more agencies prioritize conversions. 

As YouTube's role in the marketing mix continues to evolve, the research suggests brands and agencies may need to realign their expectations and investment strategies to make the most of the platform's potential.

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