GM Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick, who drove a Chevy Volt 2,400 miles to appear at the Los Angeles Auto Show, holds a charger connection device at the 2010 show. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
You know the old saying, ?go big, or go home.? General Motors? advertising chief Joel Ewanick made some bold moves in his short tenure, such as severing ad ties with Facebook right before it went public. Now he?s out.
GM announced this evening that Ewanick, 52, had ?elected to resign effective immediately. News of his ouster came earlier in the afternoon, when The Wall Street Journal,?Automotive News and the Detroit News were among those reporting Ewanick?s departure, citing sources.
There was no apparent reason why the move was made, the latest shakeup under GM CEO Dan Akerson. Last week, Dave Lyon, who designed the Chevrolet Volt interior and was set to lead GM?s European design operations, left the carmaker, too.
GM said Alan Batey, vice president of U.S. and service, would become global marketing officer on an interim basis.
Ewanick was only at GM for two years, and just became chief marketing officer in December 2010. His main task was to create a new image for the car company that would transcend its reputation as Government Motors, gained because of the federal bailout the company took in 2009.
His departure means GM will be shopping for a permanent marketing chief at a critical time for the company. GM has lost the small market share gain it made in 2010, after it emerged from the managed bankruptcy led by the Obama administration. It also has battled to keep the image of the Chevrolet Volt from being dragged into political debate.
Ewanick may be best remembered for GM?s decision to pull the plug on Facebook advertising right before Faceboo?s initial public offering. Though GM maintains a series of Facebook pages for its brands, the move was viewed as skepticism on GM?s part over the effectiveness of Facebook ads. Since then, however, GM has said it plans to return to Facebook ads.
In another ad move, Ewanick said GM would not be advertising on the 2013 Super Bowl, where Chrysler has had a dynamic presence the past two years. According to Automotive News, that announcement and the Facebook step caught many people at GM off guard, and Ewanick later said he regretted how the news came out.
Meanwhile, GM and Ford got into a spat over a Chevrolet ad during the 2012 Super Bowl that showed the Silverado pickup surviving the Apocalypse, inferring that the Ford F-series was not Ford Tough enough to get through it. When Ford threatened to sue, GM went public with the dispute and didn?t back down. ?We can wait until the world ends, and if we need to, we will apologize,? Ewanick said, according to the Detroit News.
This weekend GM kicked off the advertising campaign for the new Cadillac ATS during the 2012 Olympic Games. The ad barrage began during Friday night?s telecast of the opening ceremonies and continued Saturday and Sunday.
Automotive News said Ewanick recently led a massive consolidation of the external marketing and advertising agencies that work with GM. Last spring, he moved the account for Chevrolet?s creative work from dozens of agencies globally to just one firm, Commonwealth of Detroit.
He also put all of GM?s media buying duties under London-based Aegis? Carat unit, ending its work with dozens of smaller agencies. Combined, those moves are expected to save GM $2 billion over five years, the company has said, according to Automotive News.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2012/07/29/gm-ad-chief-who-quit-facebook-ads-is-ousted-reports/
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http://thomasgus.typepad.com/blog/2012/07/gm-ad-chief-who-quit-facebook-ads-is-ousted-reports.html
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