Some brands are walking away from X after a Media Matters for America report found ads from major brands appearing “next to content that touts Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party” on the platform and after owner Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory last week.

IBM, which the New York Times reported planned to spend around $1 million on the platform in the last three months of 2023, suspended all advertising on the platform, the company confirmed to Marketing Brew.

“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination, and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” IBM spokesperson Adam Pratt said in an email.

• Following IBM’s decision, brands like Apple, Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, and Comcast suspended advertising on the platform as well, according to news reports.
• Other organizations have also opted out of the platform, at least for now: The European Commission recommended a temporary suspension of advertising on X “to avoid risks of reputational damage,” according to Politico.

IBM, Apple, and Comcast-owned Xfinity were among the brands that appeared next to hateful content on X, according to the Media Matters report. Other brands, including Bravo (which is owned by Comcast’s NBCUniversal) and Oracle, did not return our requests for comment; neither did X.

Exit: As some brands reconsider spending on X, Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino, who claimed in August that advertisers are “protected” from appearing next to brand-unsafe content, are rolling out other ways to try to make money, including introducing new subscription tiers and partnering with Google to sell programmatic ads.

Keep reading here.—JS

Promising? Cautious? Maybe a little of both? As marketers await forecasts for retail’s biggest selling season of the year, Klaviyo is coming through with all the deets for their peace of mind.

After surveying 3k US consumers to find out exactly how they plan to shop this Black Friday and Cyber Monday (given current economic headwinds), Klaviyo created The 2023 consumer spending report to share their findings.

This free report covers:

• actionable insights from experts that you can apply to your marketing
• current vs. future spending plans and budget allocation
• marketing strategies that can earn the biggest share of wallet

With the year’s most pivotal shopping season fast approaching, these insights couldn’t have come at a better time. Take a look.

While most of us spent the past few days planning menus for our turkey feasts and bracing for awkward Thanksgiving weekend hometown encounters, one of the most buzzed-about Silicon Valley startups became embroiled in scandal we haven’t seen since Succession. Seemingly out of nowhere, OpenAI sacked CEO Sam Altman, who had been leading the company as it developed ChatGPT and other AI tools.

The boardroom drama isn’t just a tech story. Generative AI tools have been rapidly adopted by adland this past year, and it seems hard to understate the excitement from advertisers and agencies about the potential for the tech.

• Tech juggernauts like Google and Meta have augmented their ad tools with AI features, and certain streaming platforms, like Tubi, have integrated it into their recommendation tools, with potential implications for advertising.

At the heart of it all is OpenAI, which built ChatGPT, which is now being implemented across the industry, so where Altman and his deputies end up going could have widespread implications.

While the smoke is still clearing, we’ve attempted to distill the last few days’ happenings into a timeline that even non-techies can follow.

Friday: News breaks that Altman has been fired. The majority of the OpenAI board voted him out, reportedly over disagreements around how fast the company was growing and how issues around AI safety should be handled. At the time, the board claimed it fired Altman because he was not being “consistently candid in his communications with the board.”

After the firing, Greg Brockman, who said he was not involved in the vote to oust Altman and was notified that he had been removed from the board on Friday afternoon, quit in solidarity with Altman. CTO Mira Murati is named interim CEO.

Saturday: After blowback over Altman’s ousting, negotiations between Altman and OpenAI begin with the goal of potentially bringing him back. Altman is reportedly seeking governance changes at OpenAI if he is to rejoin. Altman has the support of OpenAI investor Microsoft’s chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella.

Monday: After negotiations seemingly don’t pan out, Nadella announces on X that Microsoft has hired Altman, Brockman, and other ex-OpenAI employees to lead a new AI research team.

Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Amazon-owned livestreaming platform Twitch, which he co-founded, announces on X that he has been named interim CEO of OpenAI, attracting immediate scrutiny. Murati returns to her position as CTO.

OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, one of the board members who voted to oust Altman, takes to X, writing that “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions.” Hundreds of OpenAI employees signed a letter saying they will resign and join Microsoft’s newly created AI team unless OpenAI’s board steps down and the company reinstates Altman and Brockman.

Microsoft, for its part, appeared to clock a major win: Its stock price hit an all-time high on Monday after it announced it had hired Altman‚—but Nadella suggested that Altman could still return to OpenAI in some capacity.—JS

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Joyce Kim is the chief marketing officer of Twilio. Prior to Twilio, she served in CMO roles at tech companies including Genesys, Arm, and Wrike, and she’s also held positions at Google and Microsoft.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? At the moment, it has to be Nike’s recent “How We Do” series, which showcases young women of color in the athletic scene. It’s so, so important for these young women to be able to share their voices in a space that can so often exclude them from conversations.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I absolutely love cycling. You can always find me biking the Bay Area roads during the weekend. There’s nothing like a literal breath of fresh air when you’ve been spending the whole week working indoors, and it’s one of my favorite ways to stay in shape.

What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? Data is every marketer’s future, and activating real-time data needs to be the cornerstone of every marketer’s playbook. Data is the backbone of understanding what customers need, when they need it, and where they want to be engaged. When marketers embrace data, they create stronger experiences, accelerate business growth, and deepen customer engagement. Investing in getting the right data means deeper insights, and deeper insights mean a more accurate read on what isn’t working and where to shore up efforts.

As for the marketing trends I’m least optimistic about, marketers need to move away from ads without ROI. Most young customers are using ad-block extensions, and marketers need to be smarter and leaner with their data and stop spending money on ineffective campaigns. According to our recent data, 86% of consumers say that personalized experiences increase their loyalty to brands, and consumers spend on average 21% more on brands that personalize. Focus on retaining your customers’ loyalty by upleveling your personalized customer experiences—not wasting money on expensive customer acquisition.

Keep reading here.

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Faking it: How the CMO of Billion Dollar Boy thinks about AI’s effects on influencer marketing.

Thread up: What kinds of posts are working on Threads, according to a Meta exec.

Free 99: A breakdown of free website builders and how they stack up.

Reserve your spot: Marketing is all about pulling data and making strategic decisions. Learn to use the marketing data you’ve collected to make better decisions that will set your team up for success in the year ahead. Course kickoff is Dec. 4—register today!

’Tis the $eason: How do customers plan to shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Klaviyo surveyed 3k US consumers to find out. Prep for retail’s biggest selling season of the year with their free guide.*

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Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• Snoop Dogg, who shared that he was “giving up smoke” last week, revealed the remark was actually an ad campaign with Solo Stove to promote a limited-edition, Snoop-branded fire pit.
• Oura Ring’s parent company, Ōura, has chosen Mediahub to serve as its global media AOR.
• Spotify is reportedly planning to split with UM, its agency of record since 2017.