Exiting Tesla exec suggests spending 1% of revenue on advertising

Tesla’s former head of investor relations suggests that the automaker should spend 1% of its revenue on advertising to expand brand awareness.

For years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has famously said that he despises advertising.

Martin Viecha, an exiting Tesla executive,

proposed that Tesla should spend about 1% of its revenue on ads, both digital and TV.

He believes this would be beneficial for Tesla’s margins and its mission.

Interestingly, after Musk acquired Twitter, which relies heavily on advertising,

he announced that Tesla would start to advertise.

Musk even pointed out the irony, saying, “I guess I should say that advertising is awesome and everyone should do it.”

Tesla began advertising on platforms like YouTube and Meta but stopped shortly after.

Musk complained that Tesla’s ads were “too generic.”

Despite this, Tesla’s best advertising effort was for Musk’s compensation package rather than its products.

Spending 1% of Tesla’s revenue would mean a quarterly advertising budget of over $200 million.

This could significantly boost EV awareness and educate consumers about Tesla’s offerings,

like leasing a Model 3 for $299 a month.