© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Twitter corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco, California, U.S., November 18, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
(Reuters) – Major advertising agency GroupM has told clients it no longer considers Twitter “high risk” and is “cautiously optimistic” about the appointment of Linda Yaccarino as its new boss, the Financial Times reported on Friday. .
Yaccarino will take over the social media platform plagued with challenges and a heavy debt load, after spending several years modernizing the advertising business at NBCUniversal.
GroupM, owned by WPP, last year called Twitter a “high risk” platform for advertising following its acquisition of Elon Musk. He pointed to several problems, including a large number of Twitter executives leaving or being fired and a wave of high-profile impersonations, which raised concerns about Twitter’s ability to follow orders from the Federal Trade Commission, as various media reports showed.
GroupM had been holding back until there was a “return to normal” regarding the amount of harmful content on the platform, which increased after the acquisition, according to the FT report.
The group had been waiting for Musk to repopulate his senior leadership team and work with Twitter to improve “brand safety”, he added.
Last year, Twitter laid off half its workforce, but said the cuts were minor in the team responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation, as advertisers cut spending amid concerns about content moderation.
GroupM and Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.