The rebrand heard around the world: Everything you need to know about X
An attempt to make sense of the change from Twitter to X to… Threads?
Truth be told, when I started this blog post a week ago it was meant to be an explainer of some key differences between Twitter and Threads, the new app launched by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company. Zuckerberg launched Threads quickly, in response to what he probably thought was perfect timing because chaos at Twitter seemed to be at its peak.
What an innocent time last week was.
Now that Twitter is no longer Twitter, and tweets are “X’s”, it seems impossible to imagine things getting more confusing… but we can’t keep underestimating Elon.
So, to help all of us get a sense of what’s actually going on (for now), we’ve compiled five interesting things to know about the rebrand heard around the world.
1. Why nothing and everything about this makes sense
Of the many confusing things about how and why Twitter is now “X”, chief among them is the fact that Musk is actually not supposed to be the “Chief” anymore. However, despite ostensibly stepping down, he is clearly calling the shots.
The first notice that Twitter would be rebranding came from Musk himself, in the form of an open-call graphic design… contest?
True to his word, he did, in fact “go live” with the change. The rollout was bumpy to say the least, and has drawn much criticism and confusion.
Musk’s rationale literally seems to be that he just likes the letter X. (He previous tried to rebrand Paypal to X.com years ago, which… did not go over well with anyone and he was ousted as CEO.)
He, and actual CEO Linda Yaccarino (who must be loving life right now), also claim that they envision evolving the platform to a “superapp” akin to WeChat in China, which is used for social media and beyond — payments, chatting, dating, and more.
2. What does the rebrand mean for the immediate future?
So far, the news hasn’t been great. Many analysts believe that X could be forced to cease operations altogether, which would mean a staggering negative return on Musk’s $44B investment, not to mention in an astoundingly short amount of time.
Now that X is a private company, Musk doesn’t have to worry about stock prices, but… the estimated value is down over 91%.
Twitter’s brand value is [now] estimated at about $4 billion, according to brand valuation consulting firm Brand Finance. The firm values the Facebook brand at $59 billion and Instagram at $47.4 billion.
Other excellent quotes and facts from this piece:
- It’s “completely irrational from a business and brand point of view,” said Allen Adamson, co-founder of the marketing and brand consulting group Metaforce. “To me, it’s going to go down in history as one of the fastest unwinding of a business and brand ever.”
3. The news is not great for advertisers, either
Musk himself stated that revenue is down over 50% since October, and he continues to make it challenging for the few brands interested in advertising on the platform.
Prior to the rebrand, the company introduced a “pay to play” model for advertisers themselves.
Musk claims that the changes are meant to help avoid scammers placing ads on the platform, but the process and the rollout has not been received in a positive light.
In fact, these moves seem motivated by his overall cynicism around marketing, which he say he “hates.”
4. Who benefits from the change and why is it Mark Zuckerberg?
Mark Zuckerberg is having quite the winning time lately.
The billionaire who didn’t exactly have the best public image in recent history, has suddenly become the hero we didn’t necessarily want or deserve.
While Threads had a strong rollout (despite criticism over a lack of popular features they promise are in development), Zuckerberg has another interesting (and hilarious) ace up his sleeve.
As explained in this piece by CNBC, “Meta, Microsoft and other companies already own trademarks for Twitter’s new name.”
Meta randomly owns the X trademark in the social space after partnering with Microsoft on its Xcloud streaming service when they were trying to compete against Twitch in the video game-streaming landscape. (Facebook Gaming has long been shuttered, but this is quite the third act for that venture.)
So… if Musk wants to get the trademark for X, he would likely have to negotiate with the guy he most recently challenged to a certain NSFW challenge. INTERESTING.
(Having said that, it’s worth noting that it’s probably in Meta’s interest to LET Musk have the X trademark and continue sinking his ship.)
5. So… what do advertisers and brands do in the meantime?
The waters are definitely choppy.
If we step away from the drama and back to some realities, Twitter was never our platform of choice for ads at Rain Digital. Along with a comparatively limited range of features and options, we found that getting results almost always came at a higher cost on Twitter. In our view, this latest development only makes advertising on Twitter even less appealing.
It’s frankly another boon for Zuckerberg, who has honed Meta’s ad platform and is likely poised for a much more seamless rollout to Threads when that comes around.
For brands wondering if they should still bother to tweet organically, it is of course their choice to decide how comfortable they are with being more visibly aligned with Musk’s personal brand over the brand equity that Twitter had built up.
Many of its users were likely blissfully unaware of some of the petty battles that were taking place over the past few weeks, but it’s now glaringly clear with the rebrand.
For now, we suggest securing your brand or organization’s Threads handle and join us all in the waiting game for what’s to come over the next few weeks and months ahead.
Thoughts or questions about what’s going on in social media? Leave us a comment or reach out anytime.
PS — Believe it or not, we just scratched the surface of this chaos, so if you’d like a deeper dive into the reactions, weirdness and outcomes, check out this fun recap video from content creator/marketer, Brandon Ewing, previously of Twitch and Nvidia:
