Chevy names new advertising chief ahead of key launches
 | Molly Peck, Chevrolet's new director of U.S. advertising, spent much of the past year on the ad campaign for the just-launched ATS compact sedan -- Cadillac's biggest ad blitz in at least 6 years. |
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DETROIT -- General Motors has tapped a new advertising director for Chevrolet ahead of a slew of product launches over the next 18 months.
Molly Peck, who had been head of advertising for Cadillac, last week was named Chevrolet's director of U.S. advertising, a company spokesman said.
She replaces Kevin Mayer, who left GM in May to become vice president of marketing for Volkswagen of America.
Peck spent much of the past year on the advertising campaign for the recently launched ATS compact, Cadillac's biggest ad blitz in at least six years. TV commercials for the ATS appeared often on the Olympics broadcasts last month, showing the sedan speeding through twisty, remote roads from China to Chile.
This is Peck's second stint at Chevrolet. She held a variety of posts for the brand, including advertising and sales promotion manager from 2007 to early 2011, when she took the Cadillac job. She led brand communications for the 2009 relaunch of the Camaro and the 2010 rollout of the Volt plug-in hybrid.
The ATS campaign's ambitious, documentary style is a big departure from Cadillac's recent advertising, which generally had been devoid of people.
"It's meant to signal that something's different here," Peck told reporters in July while previewing the ATS spots. "It's not like anything we've ever done before."
Chevrolet has a number of big launches pending, too, including the early 2013 rollout of the redesigned Impala sedan and the next-generation Chevrolet Silverado pickup, which is expected to hit showrooms by late spring. Late next year, Chevrolet is expected to introduce redesigned versions of the Tahoe and Suburban SUVs.
Advertising Age, a sister publication of Automotive News, named Peck to its 2012 list of ad industry "Women to Watch." She reports to Chris Perry, Chevrolet's vice president of global marketing.
Peck received an undergraduate degree in advertising from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
You can reach Mike Colias at mcolias@crain.com.
