In the past year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become the richest person in the world, passing Jeff Bezos with a net worth that is somewhere out in the solar system where his SpaceX rockets hope to fly some day. There’s another title that Musk has earned recently, and it cannot be argued; “most influential person on social media.”
He knows it, his followers know it, the upper echelons of Twitter know it, and Wall Street knows it. He has the ability to change a company’s fortune, simply by hitting the send button on his phone. In the past few weeks, at the bare minimum a half dozen stock prices were completely altered because Musk said he liked a product or service, including Etsy and GameStop. That is raw power, and in the wrong hands, (or should I say fingers) or with the wrong motives and intentions, it is a power that easily could be abused or manipulated.
It is not impossible to see a scenario where Musk could put a company out of business in a week. Not intentionally of course, but just based on his massive influence. Competitors, rivals and anyone thinking about grappling in business with Musk have to be a little bit terrified of what potentially could happen.
It’s a power that some might find to be uncomfortable to posses, and maybe that’s why Musk sent out a five-word message on Tuesday, “Off Twitter for a while.” He provided no further details, specifically, he didn’t define what “a while” means.
An hour? A day? A week? In June of 2020, he took a break from his social media channel of preference, Twitter, which lasted a total of two days. In 2019, he came back after being away for three days.
This past Sunday, Musk made news by grilling the Robinhood CEO on the audio app called Clubhouse. It’s a favorite of the elite of Silicon Valley. Musk sent out a tweet that said “on Clubhouse tonight at 10pm LA time.” By Monday, the Clubhouse share price had risen an incredible 45%.
Etsy’s stock rose 3.5% when Musk tweeted in late January that “I kinda love Easy,”
GameStop went up 157% one day last week in after-hours trading after a Musk tweet that said “Gamestonk!!” And Bitcoin rose 15% when he added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio.
What would happen if if Musk accidentally spilled ketchup on his shirt and tweeted a simple message about it. Would Kraft Heinz stock tank?
Or, what if he got rear ended on an Austin, Texas freeway by someone driving a Ford Mustang. Would Ford Motor Company’s stock, currently at $10.94 on Tuesday, fall into the low single digits?
On Sunday night, tens of millions of Americans will be unified for maybe the only time all year. They will watch the Super Bowl together, The Tampa Bay Bucs take on the Kansas City Chiefs,as Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes square off in the best quarterback matchup in the 55-year history of the game.
CBS is the lucky network broadcasting the game Sunday, so they will take their turn raking in almost $400 million in revenue for their commercial inventory. The cost of a 30-second spot is $5.5 million, by far the most expensive air time on television.
In the politically correct world we live in now, the commercials produced for this year’s game have no shot of being as entertaining, controversial, or effective as spots in the big game have been in the past. Each company that makes one needs to decide if that $5.5 million price tag is worth it.
In 2018, Marketing Science published a study on Super Bowl ads, where they said “the benefits from Super Bowl ads persist well into the year with increased sales during other sporting events.”
Here’s a prediction to file away as advertising and marketing strategies continue to shift, and traditional TV spots become more expensive and reach even fewer eyeballs.
Some smart and progressive company is going to go to Elon Musk, and offer an outrageous amount of money that could be sent to a charity of Musk’s choice, in exchange for a shout out on a future Super Bowl. The company would not need to spend any money on production to produce some high concept mini movie or pay millions for A-list talent.
Even if Musk turned them down, the company would receive more impact and residual value than buying a :30 commercial that aired in the fourth quarter of a game that potentially could be a blowout.
Musk has already revolutionized electric car and space travel. He’s digging huge holes in major cities to alleviate traffic. Why should we believe he won’t find a better way for company’s to advertise on Super Bowl Sunday?
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