Public ‘more positive’ about old Twitter logo than X replacement

Twitter rebranded to X last month, with a new logo launched by Twitter/X owner Elon Musk to replace its previous bird branding.

System1 analysed the logos of six rival social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Threads and TikTok – as well as the new and old Twitter/X logos through its distinctive asset testing tool.

The tool analyses how recognisable a brand is (fame), how quickly attributable it is (fluency) and how it makes people feel.

The analysis found that while the X and Twitter logos were equally recognisable and attributable as each other and other social media rivals, the X logo was far behind other networks in how it made consumers feel.

For example, just 12% of consumers in the research felt happiness towards the new X logo compared with 26% for Twitter’s old logo.

The research found 47% of consumers felt neutrality towards the X logo, and 29% felt contempt – the second highest neutrality and highest contempt levels for any network logo.

In comparison, the Twitter bird logo had 43% of consumers feeling neutrality and 19% feeling contempt.

The research also shows the phrase ‘tweet’ has the highest level of both fame and fluency among social media network phrases, such as ‘share’, ‘story’, ‘reel’ and ‘status’.

System1 concluded that by replacing both Twitter’s original ‘Larry the Bird’ logo and the phrase ‘tweet’, the platform is losing two of its strongest brand assets and undermining both its distinctiveness and emotional appeal.

Jon Evans, chief customer officer at System1, said: “Fluency and fame are hugely important components of effective brand building, but ultimately it is a brand’s ability to evoke positive emotional impact – and make consumers feel good – that drives engagement.

“With X moving away from Larry and the tweet phrase overnight, the platform faces an uphill battle in recapturing distinctiveness and emotional appeal.”