Former Hyundai CMO named X’s global head of marketing

Former Hyundai marketer Angela Zepeda has joined X as global head of marketing, the manager announced via a LinkedIn post. X CEO Linda Yaccarino also shared the news on the social media platform owned by Elon Musk on Monday. X has not had a marketing lead of this type since 2022, the 12 months Musk acquired the platform for $44 billion. 

“X is the world’s most meaningful platform so it was essential to rent an exceptional leader like Angela to further shape our transformation,” Yaccarino wrote. “Most recently serving as CMO/Chief Creative Officer for Hyundai, Angela brings incredible experience and expertise, understands how one can grow a brand globally and is precisely the correct person to steer X’s marketing as we speed up our innovation.”

Jumping to the corporate formerly often called Twitter marks a pivot for Zepeda, who acted as Hyundai’s CMO for nearly five years and previously had an extended stint at Innocean USA, the carmaker’s creative agency. During her tenure at Hyundai, Zepeda achieved widespread recognition. She was named amongst essentially the most influential CMOs by Forbes last 12 months. 

Zepeda left Hyundai in late August following an internal reorganization that saw performance marketing and inventive split into separate functions. Zepeda’s role was modified from CMO to chief creative officer, an appointment with a narrower remit. Sean Gilpin, initially tasked with overseeing the brand new performance unit, was promoted to Hyundai’s U.S. CMO around Zepeda’s exit, overseeing each marketing and performance duties.  

Zepeda joins X at a turbulent time for the social media platform, which has contended with a series of controversies under Musk. The mercurial entrepreneur, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, has an especially rocky relationship with advertisers. 

Musk has launched several industry charm offensives only to lash out at brands which have paused or peeled back spending because of issues with brand safety, or ads appearing alongside unsavory content (Hyundai has had its X promoting on hold for the reason that spring after its campaigns ran around hateful posts, in accordance with The Wall Street Journal). 

Content moderation is mostly perceived to be a lower priority under Musk, who has made enabling free speech a core part of his mission at X, together with converting the positioning into an “every thing” app that hopes to eventually encompass banking, payments, shopping and more. 

The brand safety issue got here to head in early August when X filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a not-for-profit division of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) focused on developing digital safety standards for advertisers. GARM members, including Unilever and Mars, were named within the criticism. 

GARM shuttered quickly following the lawsuit to avoid what would likely have been a draining legal battle. The WFA, a trade body, plans to fight X’s allegations in court, including claims that GARM used coercive market power to implement advertiser boycotts which have hamstrung X. 

Zepeda has a tall order in burnishing X’s fame with consumers and promoting the platform’s latest bells and whistles amid the drive to appreciate the “every thing” app positioning, which stays a piece in progress. X recently lost over 20 million users after being banned in Brazil.