Who needs advertising when you have the world’s best publicist and a legion of 7 million followers?
Well, not Tesla, as Elon Musk proved this week, paradoxically, by agreeing to run the car firm’s very first ad.
Bria Loveday, a 10-year-old from Michigan, wrote to the firm’s CEO proposing a competition for fans to submit homemade ads, with the winner seeing their ad aired and winning a year of free supercharging or a Model 3 Easter Egg.
Never one to miss a PR trick, Musk tweeted back to confirm he loved the idea and would give it a go.
It’s not the first time the tech visionary, who also runs SpaceX and co-founded PayPal, has proved that savvy tweeting is just as valuable advertising.
In December, a customer tweeted Musk to say his local Tesla charing point was always full of idiots who leave their car for hours after its charged.
“You’re right, this is becoming an issue,” Musk tweeted back. “Supercharger spots are meant for charging, not parking. Will take action.”
Within just six days, Tesla announced a new idle fee to penalise drivers who hog the charing points.
As was later revealed by news site Electrek, a line for “idle fees” was found in the code of Tesla’s web page months before.
But that did little to detract from business experts’ praise for the move, which was lauded a prime example of how to do customer service.
Musk’s a PR god.