Elon Musk’s Twitter Tenure Deserves A Chance, NBCUniversal Sales Chief Linda Yaccarino Says: “You’ve Got To Give The Guy A Minute”

deadline.com:

Linda Yaccarino, head of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, says despite the intense backlash over his two-plus weeks operating Twitter, Elon Musk deserves patience from the company’s advertisers and business partners. “You’ve got to give the guy a minute,” Yaccarino said, adding that she wouldn’t “bet against him.” Speaking at an Ad Age conference, as reported by the advertising trade publication, Yaccarino said she has been “obsessed” with Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter, which she described as “fascinating.” Yaccarino said she had been among major advertisers touching base with the company’s leadership during the recent chaos as it looks to shore up relations with advertisers and users.

For NBCUniversal, “Twitter is the single, No. 1 biggest” partner for content distribution, she noted. Through the company’s Amplify offering, it takes a cut of proceeds for helping NBCU promote news, sports and entertainment franchises like Saturday Night Live as well as company mainstays like the Olympic Games.

Many ad buyers have paused their buys on Twitter in recent days as a result of the choppy rollout of a new verification scheme, which jeopardized the lion’s share of the company’s $5 billion-plus in annual revenue.

The effort to explore new subscription models has coincided with Musk laying off half the company’s staff and engaging in dubious conduct on his personal Twitter account.