Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Try Advertising
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. CEO Elon Musk said the electric carmaker will dabble in advertisements, a major shift for the company that has largely avoided traditional marketing.
鈥淲e鈥檒l try a little advertising and see how it goes,鈥 Musk said May 16 at Tesla鈥檚 annual shareholder meeting, in response to an investor鈥檚 question.
Shares rose more than 2% in premarket trading.
Tesla has long prided itself on word-of-mouth among its fan base to market its vehicles. It鈥檚 built a formidable brand without paying for television, radio or print ads.
Musk said in a subsequent interview with CNBC that paying for ads could be a way to expand beyond Tesla鈥檚 existing user base.
鈥淚t鈥檚 worth a try and we鈥檒l see how effective it is,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 only just agreed to it so it鈥檚 not a fully formed strategy.鈥
Musk has used Twitter, which he now owns, as a marketing tool for Tesla. The social media site depends on advertising as its primary source of revenue, something newly appointed is expected to focus on.
Musk told CNBC that some companies had pulled ads from Twitter after facing criticism from the social media site鈥檚 own crowdsourced fact-checking feature known as community notes. He didn鈥檛 name the advertisers, but said it cost Twitter $40 million.
Musk also said that he鈥檚 going to continue to say what he thinks on Twitter even if it causes some advertisers to abandon the platform.
鈥淚鈥檒l say what I want, and if the consequences of that is losing money, so be it,鈥 he said.
With assistance from Aisha Counts.
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