Joel Ewanick

NICK BUNKLEY

Why Chevy execs are suddenly watching 'Mad Men'

2:19 pm U.S. ET | May 7, 2013
One of Joel Ewanick's big moves in his brief reign as chief marketing officer of General Motors was to combine two rival ad agencies and give them the Chevrolet account, ousting Campbell Ewald after decades of experience. It turns out that Don Draper had that exact same idea in 1968.... Read More »

 

GM marketing shakeup may end joint venture that handles Chevy advertising

9:02 pm U.S. ET | March 12, 2013
GM is considering another shakeup in Chevrolet marketing that would end a joint venture created last year between two large agencies to handle Chevy's creative advertising globally. Discussions are underway that would consolidate most of Chevrolet's creative work under Interpublic Group's McCann Worldgroup, one half of the 50-50 venture called Commonwealth that was formed nearly a year ago with Omnicom Group Inc.'s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, according to a person familiar with the talks.... Read More »

 

2012 LISTS OF 1O

Marketing moments

12:01 am U.S. ET | Dec. 31, 2012
Milestones in automotive marketing for the past year.... Read More »

 

YEAR IN REVIEW

Names, faces and brands that left the stage in 2012

12:01 am U.S. ET | Dec. 28, 2012
Industry sales continued to rebound, VW completed its acquisition of Porsche, and Honda and Toyota staged impressive comebacks. Names and faces came and went, as well, in 2012. A look back at some of the notable bold-faced names and brands that left the automotive scene in 2012:... Read More »

 

Fisker hires former GM marketing chief Ewanick

9:43 pm U.S. ET | Nov. 26, 2012
Fisker Automotive has hired ousted General Motors' global marketing boss Joel Ewanick to be interim chief of global sales and marketing for the maker of luxury plug-in hybrids.... Read More »

 

GM seen planning global reorganization to tackle 'fiefdoms'

Aug. 17, 2012 10:34 CET
GM CEO Dan Akerson is planning a reorganization of the automaker that would move it away from long-entrenched regional authority toward a structure built on global functions, said two people familiar with the planning.... Read More »

 

Why did Ewanick get a red card?

12:01 am U.S. ET | Aug. 13, 2012
When General Motors' then-marketing chief Joel Ewanick approached Manchester United in the spring about a sponsorship deal, he had an authorized annual budget of about $70 million to play with. It wasn't enough to sign on as Manchester's jersey title. To cover the gap, Ewanick negotiated a separate media deal worth about $20 million to $25 million that included additional advertising rights.... Read More »

 

FINAL ASSEMBLY

Before getting fired, GM's Ewanick got Farleyed

12:01 am U.S. ET | Aug. 13, 2012
A few weeks before Joel Ewanick was ousted at General Motors, CEO Dan Akerson gave his global marketing chief a censure of sorts for a display of public profanity. Akerson forced Ewanick to carry a "Farley" award, named for Jim Farley, the Ford marketing chief who has let a bad word slip now and again.... Read More »

 

Akerson urges GM employees to ‘behave with integrity’

1:14 pm U.S. ET | Aug. 10, 2012
GM CEO Dan Akerson urged employees to embrace change, perform with integrity and accelerate the transformation of the company’s culture this week. Akerson told employees he wants to focus GM more on brands and customers, and better position the company to survive the next 50 or 100 years. He also decried a spate of recent leaks to the media.... Read More »

 

GM soccer deal whistle-blower said to have brought down marketing chief

Aug. 8, 2012 09:38 CET
General Motors CEO Dan Akerson's conflicts with marketing boss Joel Ewanick started weeks before he was ousted for not properly disclosing as much as a third of the cost of a $559 million soccer deal with the UK's Manchester United team, people familiar with the situation said.... Read More »

 

The Face of Change

12:01 am U.S. ET | Aug. 6, 2012
As Dan Akerson nears his two-year mark as General Motors CEO on Sept. 1, executive upheaval has emerged as a hallmark of his tenure. And more may be coming. The turnover -- including last week's ouster of marketing chief Joel Ewanick -- has accelerated in Akerson's second year, while GM's U.S. market share slipped, losses in Europe widened and GM's stock price languished.... Read More »

 

Dealers mixed on Ewanick

12:01 am U.S. ET | Aug. 6, 2012
Chevrolet dealers reacted with mixed feelings to last week's abrupt departure of General Motors global marketing chief Joel Ewanick.... Read More »

 

Manchester United says GM agreement will generate $559 million

Aug. 4, 2012 09:34 CET
Manchester United said its General Motors sponsorship agreement will generate $559 million through 2021. Under the sponsorship, the Chevrolet logo will be placed on the soccer team's jerseys beginning in 2014.... Read More »

 

NEWS ANALYSIS

Akerson: GM's marketing approach not the result of 'one individual'

2:06 pm U.S. ET | Aug. 2, 2012
GM CEO Dan Akerson, referring to the impact of Joel Ewanick's exit, told analysts and reporters today that the automaker's marketing is a group effort, not a one-man operation. He stood by the company's position that no changes are planned in GM's marketing strategies.... Read More »

 

GUEST BLOG

What GM and Akerson should do now in marketing

11:22 am U.S. ET | July 31, 2012
After two years that were marked by a tremendous amount of upheaval, including coast-to-coast agency shuffling and a long game of musical chairs in the marketing department, it's time for GM to focus and get back to business.... Read More »

 

GM will continue soccer sponsorship despite exit of global marketing chief

July 30, 2012 16:16 CET
General Motors said it will not drop sponsorship deals with English soccer clubs Manchester United and Liverpool despite the dismissal of the company's global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick.... Read More »

 

NEWS ANALYSIS

GM interim marketing boss springs into action, touts soccer deal

10:00 pm U.S. ET | July 30, 2012
Joel Ewanick is barely out of the door after a tumultuous two years with General Motors, and interim CMO Alan Batey is already jumping into action, attempting to steer the conversation about GM's marketing activities to a positive place.... Read More »

 

GM dismisses global marketing boss Ewanick

July 30, 2012 08:22 CET
GM has dismissed global marketing chief Joel Ewanick two years after hiring him. Ewanick was removed for failing to adequately appraise the financial details of a recent sponsorship deal with Manchester United, a popular U.K. soccer team, reports said.... Read More »

 

NEWS ANALYSIS

Why did GM really part ways with Ewanick?

10:15 pm U.S. ET | July 29, 2012
While the upheaval of agencies and marketing by GM's Joel Ewanick, who is fond of grand gestures, provide plenty of speculative fodder for the reasoning behind his departure, the bottom line may instead be something simpler: GM's market share struggles.... Read More »

 

Ewanick's ouster, marketing shakeup comes at crucial time for GM

2:19 pm U.S. ET | July 29, 2012
The sudden departure of Joel Ewanick leaves GM struggling with uncertainty atop its marketing division just ahead of one of the automaker's busiest vehicle-launch schedules in its history. On Sunday, Ewanick, 52, was ousted as global chief marketing officer. GM spokesman Greg Martin said Ewanick “failed to meet the expectations the company has of an employee.” He didn't elaborate.... Read More »

 

NEWS ANALYSIS

Chevy's 'Love It or Return It' campaign echoes similar programs in 2009

3:57 pm U.S. ET | July 11, 2012
To use a football metaphor, trick plays are great but how many times can you go to the same playbook? General Motors is about to find out.... Read More »

 

NEWS ANALYSIS

Will GM's hardball marketing tactics pay off or backfire?

1:00 pm U.S. ET | June 18, 2012
GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick has been rattling his saber for months, unsettling media outlets and major television networks, in part by questioning the value of certain advertising platforms and resisting hefty hikes in ad rates. What are the motivations and risks behind the moves at one of corporate America's biggest advertisers?... Read More »

 

GM targets world with Man U deal

12:01 am U.S. ET | June 4, 2012
General Motors is targeting soccer fans in China and around the world with a five-year sponsorship of England's Manchester United soccer club.... Read More »

 

GM, TV broadcasters at odds in ad purchasing standoff

12:01 am U.S. ET | June 3, 2012
General Motors and its media agency, Carat, have created a standoff in television ad-buying negotiations by asking TV networks for significant pricing rollbacks, which the major broadcast networks have refused, according to media buyers and other executives familiar with the pace of talks.... Read More »

 

GM to shift Super Bowl ad savings to support model launches in 2013

1:21 pm U.S. ET | May 31, 2012
GM's top marketing executive said today the automaker will plow savings from a recent decision to drop Super Bowl advertising into other ads and marketing efforts to support a slate of vehicle launches planned in 2013. In his first public comments since GM confirmed two weeks ago that it plans to pass on advertising during the 2013 Super Bowl, GM global marketing chief Joel Ewanick said he has “started reapplying those dollars to other very efficient ways of doing the same thing.”... Read More »