Comcast, Disney, and IBM Are Among Advertisers Returning to X After Ad Freeze

X’s former top advertisers including Comcast, IBM, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lionsgate Entertainment, have resumed ad spending on the platform this year, albeit at much lower rates than before. From January to September 2024, marketing intelligence platform MediaRadar found that these brands collectively spent less than $3.3 million on X. This is a 98% year-over-year drop from the $170 million spent during the same period in 2023. These brands, along with Apple, paused their campaigns in November 2023 after their ads appeared next to antisemitic content and hate speech, exacerbated by X owner Elon Musk endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which spooked many advertisers. According to MediaRadar, X’s top advertisers include challenger brands like Karma Shopping, Canles Shoes, and Kueez Entertainment, each of which spent more than $12 million this year, totaling $68 million, to stand out on a less busy media channel. "This suggests that X might move to a long-tail advertiser strategy, " said Meghan Fraze, chief product officer, of MediaRadar. "This would benefit new brands that are looking for ways to connect with audiences without the intense competition. As X evolves, it could be forging an ad model that's less dependent on the usual suspects.” A spokesperson from IBM told ADWEEK its approach to X has not changed. Comcast, Disney, and Lionsgate did not respond to media requests. Warner Bros. Discovery did not respond with an official comment before publishing. A global survey by Kantar, which polled 1,000 senior marketers and 18,000 consumers across over 20 countries, found that 26% of marketers plan to cut their spending on X in 2025. The same report showed that only 4% of marketers trust X for brand safety, compared to 39% for Google Ads. But the 2024 elections may force some brands to recalibrate their cautious approaches to X given Musk's close ties to President-elect Donald Trump. "X's owner now has the ear of the president-elect, a man who has a long history of helping his friends, and punishing his enemies," said Max Willens, senior analyst, at Emarketer. "Sending at least a trickle of ad spending toward X may be seen as good for business, albeit in an indirect way." X has always struggled to show how its ad formats drive performance, meaning that marketers haven't poured as much budget there as to Meta or Google. But X has said that it's improving its ad products which could encourage more buyers to spend. Data by MediaRadar showed that Comcast, which spent less than $1.5 million on X this year, was followed by Warner Bros. Discovery at $1.1 million, whose ads are supporting theatrical releases of movies, and Disney at under $550,000. Lionsgate spent less than $230,000, while IBM allocated under $2,000. Comcast's carousel ads, seen by ADWEEK, appeared to function as top-of-funnel marketing, directing people to Comcast’s website to highlight the company’s investment in its parks, like Universal Orlando Resort. Notably, Apple has continued its X ad hiatus since last year’s widely publicized pause. Overall, X generated $1.8 billion in ad revenue through Q3 2024, a 29% year-over-year decline from $2.5 billion in the same period last year, per MediaRadar. MediaRadar tracked in-feed ads across a panel of 2 million U.S. users. Spend is estimated based on impressions, ad type, and CPMs. This comes as X faces its biggest exodus —115,000 users leaving the platform—the day after the election, marking the biggest drop since Musk took over in 2022, according to Similarweb. That same day, X saw record web traffic, attracting 46.5 million visits—its highest in the past year, and 38% higher than the average daily traffic in recent months. "The advertisers that have returned to X this year are clearly interested in reaching that audience," said Willens. Meanwhile, online abuse targeting women has surged since the U.S. election, with harmful rhetoric like “Your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen” proliferating on X and TikTok, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.