While Tesla has always avoided paying for conventional advertising like its competitors, it has thrived tremendously through alternative marketing avenues such as targeted emails, referral programs that incentivize existing owners, and the influential tweets of Elon Musk himself.
In a notable departure from previous strategies, Musk appears open to revisiting that mindset, signaling Tesla's intention to highlight the latest car features and emphasize the affordability of their vehicles through promotional efforts.
“We’ll try a little advertising and see how it goes,” Musk said Tuesday in response to a question from Kevin Paffrath, AKA Meet Kevin, a Youtuber and financial analyst whose ETF ticker, PP, counts Tesla as its largest position.
Paffrath noted that Tesla could advertise features like over-the-air updates that improve airbag deployments, or counter common beliefs that Teslas are “super expensive” when in reality “the starting price for Tesla is below the average car price in the U.S.”
Musk agreed, noting that his experience as CEO of Twitter, a company that is highly dependent on advertising, has shown him that “advertising is awesome, and everyone should do it.”
“I think I hear your sort of larger point, which is that there are amazing features and functionality about Teslas that people just don’t know about, and although there’s obviously a lot of people that follow the Tesla account and my account…it is preaching to the choir, and the choir is already convinced.”
The nature of a potential Tesla advertising campaign remains uncertain. Drawing from past patterns, Musk has a tendency to leverage the resources of his other companies. Given their history of sharing resources, entities like The Boring Company, SpaceX, and Tesla could collaborate. It is conceivable that Musk might opt to utilize Twitter as a platform to unveil the initial Tesla advertisements.
Source: Engadget