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You can also read about the advantages of using TeslaInsiders claim that’s sale is on the decline Automaker The marketing department, which was just starting out, did not allow its creative ideas to be used.
When CEO Elon Musk announced that “the business is set to grow,” investors were excited.Give advertising a try“, after avoiding it for twenty years. The 40 person “global” growth team, tasked to deliver on this, has now been laid off after 10 months. Former staffers have revealed that no campaigns on which they worked ever saw light.
Greg Costanzo is a Senior Production Manager who joined the Team in February of 2024. Write on LinkedIn The people laid off were not able to “create any real campaigns or creative works of their own.”
He added, “Even though I’m disappointed, this was one of the most rewarding, challenging, and invigorating 2 months of my life.”
A source familiar with the situation told ADWEEK a larger creative strategy was being developed; however, the team did not get the chance to implement it properly. When the group’s plug was pulled, they were still setting up processes and just about to shoot their first major work.
Navjeet Gil, a Senior Performance Manager at the Brand until this week. Write on LinkedIn He was one of Tesla’s founding members and spearheaded its advertising campaigns in North America.
He said, “I was called a one-man marketing department because I was in charge of developing strategies and marketing campaigns.”
Since the initial days of the team, it has grown to include world-class talents [who were] developing full-funnel marketing campaigns. Gill said, “Unfortunately, this team was terminated before these campaigns could be launched.”
Musk was apparently impatient about the initial marketing. Musk confirmed Tesla’s decision, and then took his opinion to X: “The advertisements were too generic”, he stated. Musk said that the ads could have been used for any vehicle.
The staff were informed via email of this unexpected decision as part of an overall layoff program targeting over 10% of 140.500 employees of car challenger.
Bloomberg reports that Tesla has only a few marketing personnel in Europe.
ADWEEK reached out to Tesla in order to get more information.
Musk’s After Musk Chaos Takeover of X Investors were encouraged by the idea that well-executed advertising could be the key to Tesla’s recovery.
This week’s results, which showed a drop of 9% in the first quarter revenue, highlight some wider economic challenges facing the automaker.
Facebook Marketing – Early efforts
The advertising unit, which was formed in December of 2023, had been led for many years by Alex Ingram. His role, however, has now also been removed.
The team’s main mission is to Increase pricing Awareness Drive customer engagement. The company’s launch was revolutionary, as it relied heavily on referrals, word-of-mouth, email, and an incentivized incentive system. It also had a CEO who is always in the spotlight, Musk, to help drive sales.
In just two months, Growth Content, a division of marketers, strategists creatives, and producers, launched a set of simple ads on Facebook YouTube, and X.
According to ad-intelligence firm Vivvix, while the company was preparing for a tough sell, it spent $6.4 million on digital advertising in 2023 across mobile, video, search and display. The business spent $6.4 million in 2023 on digital advertising across search, display ads, mobile video and paid social. This is a massive increase from its reported $175,000 ad budget for 2022.
Cut headcount and save more than $1 Billion annually
Tesla announced on Tuesday, April 23, a drop of 9% in its first quarter revenue from $25.17 Billion to just $21.3 Billion.
Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer, Vaibhav Tania, blamed the first quarter slump on a slowing of global sales for electric vehicles, an unsteady economy, production problems and higher expenditures.
Taneja predicted that the company would save more than $1 Billion annually by making the “hard, but necessary” decision to reduce its headcount.
Musk compared business to the gestation of a human being when answering questions on Tesla’s earnings conference call. “A company grows like a living creature,” Musk said. If you do not reorganize the company for various phases of growth it will eventually fail.
He didn’t specifically address the team of marketers, but he did say: “I’m not aware that we’re giving anything up significant.”
Greg Silverman said that the brand is vulnerable because it relies on Musk to define its identity.
He said that in such cases, “a measured approach, with targeted cuts, is needed, depending on the strategic value of each area, would be required.” Tesla’s earnings are not typical.