Tesla has recently terminated its newly formed marketing team as part of widespread company layoffs, according to a report by Bloomberg. This signals a significant shift from its short-lived traditional advertising efforts. The decision comes less than a year after Musk initiated a move towards more conventional advertising by establishing a ‘growth content’ team in the United States. This team, which consisted of about 40 employees, has now been disbanded, along with the dismissal of its senior leaders, Alex Ingram and Jorge Milburn, the report claims.
The layoffs extend beyond the marketing department, affecting significant numbers of employees at Tesla’s design studio and its facilities in Hawthorne, California. Musk has criticised the marketing team’s efforts as “too generic,” implying that the ads produced could have been associated with any car brand, not specifically Tesla.
This pullback from advertising coincides with broader challenges, including slower global growth in electric vehicle sales and increasing competition. Additionally, Tesla’s brief experiment with advertising overlapped with Musk’s acquisition of X, which has seen a sharp decline in advertising revenue amid controversies over content moderation and Musk’s own public statements.
The job cuts are part of what Musk described as the largest-ever reduction in Tesla’s workforce, affecting more than 10 per cent globally, with plans potentially aiming for a 20 per cent cut, which would mean over 20,000 jobs being eliminated. Tesla’s stock has decreased by more than 40 per cent this year.
The recent developments raise questions about Tesla’s future marketing strategies and its approach to maintaining its market position amid growing competition in the electric vehicle industry.
Source: Tesla fires entire ‘growth content’ marketing team, that was formed just a year ago:
