- Twitter became X last month, but major brands have been slow to adopt the new logo.
- Of the top 25 advertisers in the US, just one had switched to the X symbol on its website
- This highlights the confusion around the rebrand, branding experts said.
It’s been almost a month since Twitter rebranded to X, but most major brands haven’t scrubbed the blue bird logo from their marketing yet.
An Insider analysis of the websites of the 25 biggest-spending advertisers in the US, according to AdAge, found just one — Procter & Gamble — had swapped to the new X branding in their social media contact information.
Other giant corporations like General Motors, American Express, Amazon, Comcast, and L’Oreal have continued to carry the old Twitter logo on their websites. The companies didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Two of the companies in the top 25 — Expedia and IBM — didn’t display any social media logos on their websites at the time of Insider’s review. X did not respond to a request for comment.
X released a new brand toolkit with logo templates and other marketing assets for marketers to use earlier this month.
While some companies may not have gotten around to updating the websites yet, branding experts said a reluctance to carry the “X” logo could signify continued confusion about Twitter’s rebrand.
Musk changed the company name of Twitter to X Corp. earlier this year and replaced Twitter’s branding on July 24. Musk, who previously ran an online banking startup called X.com that later became PayPal, has previously outlined a vision for X to become “an everything app,” encompassing financial services as well as social networking.
Shedding the Twitter name could have cost the company upwards of $4 billion in lost brand value, according to the brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance.
“How many people really know what ‘Follow us on X’ means?” said Matt Boffey, chief strategy and innovation officer at Design Bridge and Partners.
Boffey added that some brands may be sticking with the old logo as a form of “values signaling.”
“Perhaps some of them won’t want their brand associated with Musk’s X and the negative perceptions that surround it, considering it to be a potential reputational risk,” Boffey said.
The X logo also has an inherent user experience issue because it looks like the “close” button on a browser window or app, said Marissa Mulvihill, partner and head of brand and activation at the consulting firm Prophet.
Plus, some brands may be holding fire on updating to the X symbol because they’re uncertain about how long it’s likely to last. Musk said last month the logo would “evolve over time.”
“With a clear lack of strategy and no transition plan in place, the rebrand has been messy,” said Mulvihill. “With Elon’s reputation for impulsive decisions, there is legitimate concern that he might change his mind at any moment and go back to Twitter or to something entirely new.”
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