Tesla, Inc. TSLA has so far stayed away from advertising as a way to draw new customers to its electric vehicles.
What Happened: With demand plateauing and competition breathing down its neck, Tesla has seen its volume growth slacken in recent quarters. This prompted many Tesla bulls and fund managers, whose portfolios Tesla was part of, to clamor for advertising.
CEO Elon Musk apparently listened to the pleas.
See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Tesla Stock
At Tuesday's annual shareholder meeting held in Austin, Texas, Musk said he is open to trying some advertising.
YouTuber "Meet Kevin", real name Kevin Paffrath, engaged Musk about the company's marketing strategies, emphasizing the potential of advertising in increasing awareness about Tesla's unique features.
"I really think that some of the features that you highlighted here, like the over-the-air airbag deployments of improving features, the safety features are great things that we could be advertising for," Paffrath said, comparing Tesla's minimal advertising expenditure to Netflix's massive budget.
"I see their ads everywhere. Why not advertise these things that you told us here? I feel like nobody else knows about this," the popular YouTuber added.
Musk responded to Paffrath's challenge, acknowledging the contradiction between Tesla's almost non-existent advertising and Twitter's heavy reliance on it. Musk said, "So I guess I should say advertising is awesome and everyone should do it."
He agreed with Paffrath's sentiment, stating, "I share your sort of larger point, which is that there are amazing features and functionality about Teslas that people just don't know about." Adding, "I believe in taking suggestions, so, well, we'll try a little advertising and see how it goes."
We Won: Gary Black of Future Fund claimed victory at the turn of events. Tagging some of his fellow fund managers, who have been voicing support for advertising, Black said, "Despite the many loud naysayers we won big today."
"Elon finally realized that $TSLA shareholders overwhelmingly preferred that some $ in the pricing/marketing budget be allocated to educating non-EV users on the benefits of EVs," he added.
Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management's Ross Gerber replied to Black's tweet and said, "They do this right, it could be amazingly successful. I'm convinced most people have no idea.."
Price Action: Tesla closed Tuesday’s session, up 0.10% at $166.52, and added an incremental 1.19% in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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