William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
July 29, 2012
Automotive News reports General Motor's global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick is leaving. The reason according to General Motors is Ewanick didn't meet expectations.
GM hired Ewanick back in May 2010. Prior to this, he worked at Nissan for two months. Before Nissan, Ewanick worked at Hyundai where he was the chief of marketing and is credited with creating Hyundai Assurance, which allowed owners that lost their jobs to return their vehicles.
During his tenure, Ewanick led a consolidation of marketing and advertising agency work at GM. The biggest consolidation to place last spring when Chevrolet's marketing was moved from many agencies to just one, Commonwealth of Detroit.
Ewanick has also been in the spotlight for some controversial decisions and statements. Back in September 2010, Chevrolet launched the "Chevy Runs Deep" tagline. Critics have said the tagline doesn't really give Chevrolet a narrative. The tagline has been under review since then.
Then in May, Ewanick expressed concern about the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook and comfirmed that GM would pull their advertising from the site. Also, Ewanick revealed that GM would not be advertising during next year's Super Bowl. Both of these comments caught officials off guard and caused GM to go into damage control.
Ewanick's interm replacement is Alan Batey, GM's Vice President of U.S. Sales and Service.
Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required), Twitter, 2
Updated: July 30, 2012: Bloomberg reports that GM executives asked for Ewanick's resignation after a review of a sponsorship agreement that failed to meet company policies.
"It has been a privilege & honor to work with the GM Team and to be a small part of Detroit's turnaround. I wish everyone at GM all the best," Ewanick said on his twitter account last night.
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