X marks the spot

Well you can’t be in branding and not pass comment on X, formerly known as Twitter, can you? There have been LinkedIn posts and column inches galore on the subject, and so the noise Musk wanted has been more than achieved. I will therefore add only this. X…what’s your story?

To a lesser or greater extent, all rebrands are break with the past – or else why do it? – and are directing hearts and minds to a different or enhanced future. But X is operating more like a sticking plaster over the past. At best it’s communicating “watch this space”. Or if I were feeling a little more generous, “anything’s possible”. We don’t have any genuine insight about what X is going to be, bar a super-app of some sort.

Technically, the reveal of the logo – because that’s all this is, not a full repositioning and therefore rebrand – happened too early. But the attention created has been phenomenal. Musk will be revelling in the attention X’s uncertainty has created.