X CEO Linda Yaccarino 'jetted to Hollywood to woo stars and influencers back onto Elon Musk's re-branded Twitter

• e-mail

Twitter chief executive Linda Yaccarino flew to Hollywood this week in an effort to win over big name talent agencies and stars days after Elon Musk suddenly announced the social media platform's rebranding to X.

The recently-appointed Twitter head met with top agencies including Creative Arts Agency and United Talent Agency to pitch her vision for X, in the hopes of recruiting stars and influencers from posting content on other platforms to Musk's.

According to the Financial Times, the CEO also met with Disney executives. Yaccarino is said to have told stars and their agents to tell her how they'd like to make the platform work for them - and that they'll be open to changing it accordingly. 

Over the weekend, Musk announced a significant overhaul of Twitter, changing its name to X and immediately abandoning the company's signature bird logo.

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino (left), poses with mega-influencer Paris Hilton during a trip to LA

Over the weekend, Musk announced a significant overhaul of Twitter, changing its name to X and immediately abandoning the company's signature bird logo

Though Musk has alluded before to his planned expansion of the platform into a multi-use app that includes video, audio, and even payment services, his seemingly impulsive decision wiped out billions of brand equity.

The FT reported that one attendee of the CAA meeting said that Yaccarino, 59, told agents to 'dream up what they would want and that X will try to build it.'

She encouraged executives to contemplate ways they might build 'mutually beneficial monetary partnerships.'

Twitter has suggested brand sponsorship of events on Spaces - the company's audio feature - hosted by celebrities or influencers.

CAA reportedly told Twitter that they would come back to them with ideas.

Yaccarino, formerly the head of advertising at NBCUniversal, has been trying to court more advertising for Twitter, including brand deals between advertisers and creators.

As an executive, Yaccarino is known for her relationships across the media landscape, and has reportedly been in touch with big names since her first week on the job in June.

On Tuesday, Yaccarino posted a picture of herself with Paris Hilton - potentially a nod to a partnership between the platform and the celebrity who some called the original influencer.

Since his sudden departure from Fox News in late April, Tucker Carlson has also been hosting a show on Twitter.

Overnight, Musk changed the image associated with his company from the iconic bird that had captured minds and markets for more than a decade, to a bold X

Musk changed his profile picture to the company's new logo on Sunday night, which he described as 'minimalist art deco,' and changed his Twitter bio to 'X.com' 

Yaccarino, who headed up advertising at NBCUniversal before Musk poached her, is known for her excellent relationships across the entertainment industry and is hoping to leverage some of those into new revenue streams for Twitter/X

This month, the company launched a creator advertising revenue share program, allowing platform influencers meeting certain thresholds to earn money directly from the app.

However, beyond the text-based communications that the platform is best known for, other recently introduced features have not rolled out smoothly or functioned perfectly.

In May, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made his long awaited announcement that he was joining the presidential race, he did so via a Twitter Spaces audio session that was plagued by technical issues and served as the not-so-grand opening of a campaign that has yet to resonate with a national audience in a big way.

The sudden X-ification of Twitter has also surprised advertisers, many of whom had already backed away from the platform due to Musk's unsteady leadership and massive cost-cutting efforts.

The site's revenues are down by some 50 percent since Musk took control late last year after buying the firm for $44 billion. 

Yaccarino was largely selected for her new gig to go in and fix those relationships, in addition to building new ones. Though it is unclear that Yaccarino's knack for forming stable relationships will win out over Musk's ability to destroy them in an instant.

While some marketing experts see the change as a last ditch effort to detoxify the company, others see it as a clean slate for Musk to push on with his greater plans for the platform

On Sunday, as Musk announced the implementation of the rebrand, Yaccarino tweeted: 'X is the future state of unlimited interactivity - centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking - creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.'

By the time the changes were implemented on the platform, Musk had already named Twitter's parent company the X Corporation, and previously said his takeover of the social media giant was 'an accelerant to creating X, the everything app' - a reference to the X.com company he founded in 1999, a later version of which went on to become payments giant PayPal.

Such an app could still function as a social media platform, and also include messaging and mobile payments.

'Powered by AI, X will connect us in ways we're just beginning to imagine,' Yaccarino tweeted earlier on Sunday.

Following the announcement, many Twitter users voiced their vehement displeasure at the change to X.

One user vented: 'Can someone tell this man to leave Twitter alone?', while another joked: 'Twitter is rebranding to X and I can't help but ask Y.'

'Wtf is X???? Can somebody tell this man to leave twitter alone?' another user wrote.

'Wait... Twitter is actually rebranding as 'X'???? I... don't understand how that makes sense. For what????' another wrote.