Linda Yaccarino was friendlier to Elon Musk than most promoting executives — and as Twitter’s recent CEO, it’s her job to persuade industry colleagues to do business with him again.
The former NBCUniversal marketing guru, confirmed Friday as the following head of Twitter, has recently emerged as a key ally for Musk – at the same time as he traded spikes with major advertisers who felt he hadn’t done enough to combat hate speech after his messy $44 billion takeover of the corporate.
The budding relationship between the 2 was evident on April 18, when Yaccarino called the billionaire his “buddy” during an on-stage interview at a possible Miami Beach marketing conference last month – and pressed Musk to “reduce the danger.” “Twitter for ad partners.
The well-connected Yaccarino previously defended Musk on the Ad Age conference last November, urging advertisers to offer him a shot before he cuts his business ties with Twitter.
At the time, she said she was obsessed and “fascinated” by Musk’s takeover of Twitter.
Yaccarino’s diplomatic skills will probably be put to the test on Twitter, where she will probably be asked to steer a chaotic, complex overhaul of the corporate’s operations.
An effort that may undoubtedly include a significant campaign to repair Twitter’s relationship with cautious advertisers that fled the platform after Musk’s $44 billion acquisition.
“She had a rare relationship directly with the agency community and types.
This bodes well for what she is going to bring to Twitter,” said MediaLink President and CEO Michael Kassan, who has known and worked together with her for nearly 20 years.
Indeed, on the day of his April 18 interview with Yaccarino in Miami, Musk attended a lengthy private dinner with a gaggle of elite promoting and marketing executives on the Faena Hotel’s private winery, La Cava.
During the meeting, Musk dismissed claims that hate speech rose on Twitter under his watch as “fake”, The Post reported on the time.
The dinner occasionally got hot, with one attendee saying some executives were “shocked” and “appalled” by Musk’s “disregard” for hate speech and felt their concerns were dismissed.
However, sources say the meeting was ultimately a productive step.
Yaccarino’s appointment as Twitter’s next CEO got here hours after she resigned as NBCU’s head of promoting. The day before, Musk tweeted that he had already hired one other Twitter CEO to take over the role in about “six weeks.”
According to Kassin, by hiring Yaccarino, Musk’s Twitter gets “a really determined, very strong leader who is concentrated.”
Yaccarino is a “great team leader” who’s well liked in media circles, he added.
Musk said that Yaccarino will “focus totally on business operations, while I’ll concentrate on product design and emerging technologies.”
He added that Yaccarino will help “turn this platform into X, the app of every little thing.”
Yaccarino has extensive experience on the planet of digital promoting, having been instrumental in launching NBCUniversal’s ad-supported streaming service, Peacock.
Her company bio noted that her team had “generated over $100 billion in ad sales” since she joined the corporate in 2011.
“I believe he’ll learn to live with the tweet,” added Kassin. “She publicly showed that she was in a relationship [Musk]. She demonstrated the alliance.
Yaccarino’s departure marked one other setback for NBCUniversal, which was forced to abruptly fire its former longtime CEO Jeff Shell after facing a sexual harassment grievance from former CNBC international anchor Hadley Gamble.
Yaccarino’s departure was unrelated to the recent management reshuffle at NBCUniversal following Shell’s firing, a source near the situation told The Post.
Also, Yaccarino left the corporate amid rumors that the media giant is perhaps seeking to do away with Peacock in a possible combo with one other streamer like WarnerBros.
Discovery-HBO Max or Paramount+ combined streaming service.
Even if such a connection were made, a source near the situation told The Post that Yaccarino and her team will not be in peril of being cut off at NBCUniversal in a possible upheaval.
Yaccarino’s jump to Twitter was an “opportunistic move,” the source said.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that may put him out of the promoting sales business – despite the fact that he’s greater than that,” the source added.
A Penn State University graduate, Yaccarino has held various promoting positions at NBCUniversal over the past decade.
Prior to joining the media giant, she worked as an executive at Turner, whose assets are actually owned by WarnerBros. Discovery.
In addition to her media work, Yaccarino is employed by the World Economic Forum, serving because the international organization’s chair of the Task Force on the Future of Work.
Yaccarino was also chairman of the non-profit Ad Council. In 2018, she was appointed to former President Donald Trump’s advice on sports, fitness and nutrition.
