SIX HOT TAKES
1.A MISSTEP FOR BRAND DISTINCTIVENESS “It’s a mistake because you need your distinctive assets – your bird, your name, your blue colour – so that you can stand out and claim a share of screen. The average iPhone user has 40 apps spread across three or more screens. That makes app usage just as visually competitive as any grocery store shelf and just as dependent on established, distinctive identity for usage.” Mark Ritson, Twitter/X “It’s brand suicide.” Jenn Takahashi, Takahashi PR, Fast Company 2. A SECOND CHANCE “It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.” Linda Yaccarino, newly appointed ‘X’ CEO 3. THIS ISN’T A REBRAND - IT’S A LONG TERM VISION & NEW KIND OF COMPANY “I’ve been reading about X emulating WeChat in terms of a business ecosystem that facilitates buying, selling, chat, entertainment... It's not a rebrand, it is a complete reimagination and re-visioning.” Claire Hyland, Head of The Youth Lab, THINKHOUSE
“Clearly this is the most poorly executed rebrand since GAP. If an agency had been responsible for it they’d be fired already. The CX failures, the inconsistent branding on different platforms. What a mess. But this short term stuff misses the point. Musk deals in multi-decade strategic visions, and he tends to get these right. A significant proportion of Tesla’s value is rooted into the way Musk has described a new reality for mobility – the way he can help teams and investors glimpse beyond the curtain of existing structures and see a whole new way of doing things. With both Tesla and SpaceX, these visions quickly become a new kinds of company, vertically integrated in a way no others even dreamed of. In other words, this isn’t a twitter rebrand. This is the birth of a whole new company. One that will blend hardware, software and ‘brain hacking’ in unprecedented ways to provide us with a completely unique way of communicating. RIP twitter, but I suspect X might just change the world…” Ben Essen, CSO, Iris via LinkedIn
4: MEANINGLESS & IRRELEVANT “What does ‘Twitter has changed to X’ even mean? No one uses Twitter” Limor, 13, The Love Network
“That sounds like a rich people problem…I honestly don’t care what Elon Musk does.” Marc, 21, The Love Network
5. A REBRAND IS TOUGHER THAN YOU THINK “People still call our streaming service 4OD so good luck [with the name change]”. Channel 4, Twitter/X “Experts have said there appears to be “no best practice branding logic” behind Twitter’s rebrand, describing it as “all very amateur” Josh Stephenson, Marketingweek.com
“I think it's a silly and very hasty rebrand. I think "X" / Twitter has amassed such a user base that people will continue to use it out of habit regardless of what happens, but I'm personally dismayed at what Elon Musk has done to the platform.” Jade, 29, The Love Network 6. VANITY When asked if he had an opinion on the rebrand, advertising icon Dave Trott replied “Yeah, I said to Elon ‘Forget all that spaceship crap.’ ” Dave Trott, Twitter/X |
