Tesla has launched a new advertising campaign that marks a new chapter in the company’s marketing strategy, with ads appearing on this week Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.
Until last year Tesla had never entered into the traditional advertising world, instead relying on word-of-mouth and the innovation of its products to fuel its growth. That changed when last year at the Annual Shareholder Meeting, when Musk finally agreed to “try a little advertising.”
Tesla’s first venture into advertising was relatively small, launching small text ads on Google, before later expanding to videos ads on YouTube.
That was followed up later in the year with a new job posting from Tesla, seeking an “experienced Campaign Manager,” who would will play a key role in driving advertising campaigns.
Now the company has expanded its advertising to X, which as you are probably aware, is owned by Musk, so far focused on the attractive pricing of the Model Y in the US.
BREAKING: Tesla has started paid advertising on X in the U.S. pic.twitter.com/oAY7ZVYUak
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 6, 2024
There has already been a lot of feedback from Tesla owners on the decision for the company to advertise on X. One of the main talking points is the concern around two of Elon Musk’s companies working together like this, when Tesla is not yet advertising on Facebook, a platform that arguably holds more data on its users and can more effectively target who to show the ads to.
That of course leads to one of the other main talking points, in that Tesla already has a large fan base on X, and the company’s advertising efforts (and dollars) could be better spent elsewhere.