Tesla recently laid off its newly created marketing team as part of a large-scale layoff, Bloomberg reports. This marks a major shift from the short-lived traditional advertising efforts. The decision comes less than a year after Musk established a “growth content” team in the U.S. and began a shift toward more traditional advertising. The team, which was made up of around 40 employees, has now been disbanded with the firing of senior leaders Alex Ingram and Jorge Milburn, the report claims.
The layoffs extend beyond the marketing department and affect numerous employees at Tesla's design studio and facility in Hawthorne, California. Musk criticized the marketing team's efforts as “too generic” and implied that the ads produced could have been associated with any car brand, not Tesla specifically.
This shift away from advertising coincides with broader challenges, including slowing global growth in electric vehicle sales and increasing competition. Additionally, Tesla's brief experiment with advertising coincided with Musk's acquisition of Company X, but advertising revenue plummeted amid controversy over content moderation and Musk's own public statements.
The layoffs are part of what Musk described as the largest layoffs in Tesla's history, affecting more than 10% worldwide, and plans call for a potential 20% layoff, which would be 2. More than 10,000 jobs will be cut. Tesla stock has fallen more than 40% this year.
Recent developments raise questions about Tesla's future marketing strategy and approach to maintaining its market position as competition intensifies in the electric vehicle industry.
