Looks like Joel Ewanick, General Motors’ ad czar, is putting the band back together.
GM’s newest hire is Kevin Mayer, who jumped ship from Subaru of America to join Chevrolet as advertising director in a few weeks.
Who woulda’ guessed that Mayer woulda’ ever leave Subbie, one of the most successful auto brands with some of the best advertising in the U.S.?
Mayer had been at Subaru since March 2007 as marketing director.
The move reunites Mayer with a former co-worker, Chris Perry, wooed away after a decade at Hyundai Motor America by Ewanick last month to become vice president of Chevy marketing.
Mayer, a well-respected car markeeter, worked with Perry at Hyundai when he was as national ad manager. Mayer will actually report to Liz Boone, another Ewanick hire who joined GM in July as director of advertising strategy for all four of GM’s brands from Innocean Worldwide Americas, Hyundai and Kia’s in-house shop.
This industry never ceases to surprise.
We’re Putting the Band Back Together
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Chevrolet, Chris Perry, GM, Hyundai, Innocean, Jean Halliday, Joel Ewanick, Kevin Mayer, Liz Boone, Subaru. Bookmark the permalink.
Why would it be surprising for a manager to surround him or herself with people they have worked with in the past, and presumably respect and trust? Seems pretty rational, unless I’m missing something?
Hi– Yes. It’s pretty rational, but an unusual occurance at GM, where the tradition has been to promote from within— and too often it was sales people. That’s a very different skill set from advertising communcations/marketing/branding. As complicated as the media scene is today, any company spending the kind of dough GM spends on advertising really needs a team of pros. Thanks for reading AutoAdOpolis and for taking the time to send me your thoughts… Jean Halliday