Tesla to get into ‘larger scale’ advertising, but only once it figures out how

Elon Musk said that Tesla will get into “larger scale” advertising, something that investors have been calling for, but only once the company figures out how.

Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk announced a reversal of his longstanding strategy that Tesla not spend on advertising but instead spend money to improve the products – counting on owners to spread the word.

Tesla investors have often suggested to the CEO that some advertising to highlight certain features and benefits of Tesla vehicles could be worth it. The effort could help Tesla reach new consumers who are not aware of Tesla’s offering, especially following recent price drops.

At Tesla’s annual meeting earlier this year, Musk obliged for the first time. The CEO said that Tesla would “try a little advertising” and see how it goes.

In June, we reported that Tesla officially kicked off “a little advertising” with a few Google ads.

Tesla investors were hoping for an update on the effort during Tesla’s quarterly conference call last week, but Musk only briefly addressed it – saying that he sees some value:

We are advertising. I think there is some — something — there is something to be gained on the advertising front. I don’t think it’s nothing, but informing people of a car that is great but they cannot afford doesn’t really help. So, that is really the thing that must be sold, is to make the car affordable, or the average person cannot buy it for any amount of money.

Some push for more enthusiasm from the CEO about advertising on X following the lackluster conference call.

Today, seemingly fed up with it, Musk confirmed that Tesla plans to ramp up to “larger scale” advertising, but only once the company figures out what works:

“I said we would advertise. We are doing so at small scale and will do so at larger scale as we figure what works best.”

We recently reported that Tesla has ramped up its Google ads with now over 300 different ads, but it does look like the automaker is mainly testing different taglines – to Musk’s point.

Tesla is also dipping its toes in different mediums with ads being spotted at a Tokyo airport ahead of the Japan Mobility Show.

It does appear that Tesla is throwing a bunch of things at the wall and looking at what is sticking before moving ahead on a larger scale.