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Why GM Re-Friended Facebook

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By John Rosevear, The Motley Fool

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A 2013 Chevrolet Sonic. GM is testing ads for the Sonic on Facebook. Photo credit: General Motors Co.

Did General Motors just re-friend Facebook ?

Yes, it did. Almost a year after GM dumped Facebook in a move that rocked the advertising world, the social media firm has won back the Detroit auto giant as an advertiser.

GM said this week that it is running test ads for its Chevrolet Sonic small car on Facebook, and Facebook confirmed that GM had returned as an advertiser on the giant social-media service.

Clearly this is a plum for Facebook. But what does it mean for GM?

The Facebook break-up was just one strange move in a series
GM was spending $10 million a year on Facebook ads when its former chief marketing officer, Joel Ewanick, pulled the account last May. That was just one of several controversial moves the colorful Ewanick made during his tenure at General Motors, which ended when he was abruptly fired (on a Sunday, no less) by CEO Dan Akerson last July.

Ewanick had seemingly done a lot of good for the General, making moves to consolidate GM‘s global marketing efforts that were expected to save the company $2 billion over five years. But he had also rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, both inside and outside the company.

Strange moves, like his decision to punt on GM’s traditional Super Bowl ad effort, and the Facebook break-up, didn’t help his cause. While officially, Ewanick was fired for mis-handling the financial details of a sponsorship deal with a European soccer team, there was a sense at the time that frustration with GM’s lackluster U.S. sales was a big driver of Akerson’s decision.

And since his departure, slowly but surely, many of the changes he made have been unwound. GM ran ads in the most recent Super Bowl, it has reversed some of Ewanick’s changes to its longtime ad agency structure, and now it’s going back to Facebook.

So is this a big deal?

GM needs to be on Facebook
The decision to go back to advertising on Facebook is unlikely to be a big deal for GM, financially speaking. GM is one of the world’s largest buyers of advertising, with an annual budget that runs well over $4 billion. The $10 million that GM was spending annually with Facebook before Ewanick dumped the social-media firm was a relative drop in GM‘s global advertising bucket.

GM‘s return is clearly a big deal for Facebook, which wants badly to be taken seriously by consumer marketing heavyweights like GM. Facebook says that had been trying to win back GM as an advertiser ever since the breakup. But is it a big deal for GM in terms of marketing impact?

It’s not on the scale of a great Super Bowl ad, but it might

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/why-gm-re-friended-facebook/

Automobiles

Report: GM and Facebook, sitting in a tree once again

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By Jeffrey N. Ross

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Almost a year ago, General Motors made the high-profile move of pulling its advertisements from Facebook, but now it appears that the two giants of their respective industries are back on speaking terms. Ad Age is reporting that GM is once again committing its ad dollars to Facebook, although there are few details to go on including how much the automaker plans to spend.

What’s changed since last May? For starters, Joel Ewanick was fired from GM last year after ending the relatively small Facebook ad budget (reportedly $10 million) and initiating a much more expensive one ($559 million) with British soccer team Manchester United. Also, the Ad Age article does indicate that since last May, Facebook has come up with a new ad exchange that offers more traditional advertisements rather than cookie-based social ads, which may have been one of the reasons GM dropped its Facebook budget to begin with.

In any case, you can now expect to see The General’s advertisements while you’re looking for some online social interaction.

GM and Facebook, sitting in a tree once again originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Study: Ad Analysis: Which Super Bowl commercials won and lost last night? [w/video]

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By Seyth Miersma

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From kickoff through the blackout and on to the Baltimore Ravens walking away victorious at Super Bowl XLVII, advertising analysts were tracking the impact of all those very expensive commercials. Automakers and their agencies were no exception here, which means there’s been plenty of data logged in terms of which car spots actually succeeded or flopped.

Of course, as next-day results can’t exactly be measured by counting up how many folks ran out and bought a new car, judging audience reaction can be a tricky business. As evidence, we’ve read through (and watched) some early analysis pieces from various sources, and none of them can agree on which commercial was the most powerful of the night. Not even close, in fact.

We’ve read through the early analysis from various sources, and none of them can agree on which commercial was the most powerful of the night. Not even close.

“Lift” is a common marketing term and basis for measuring the success of a particular piece of advertising; the term refers roughly to the improvement in audience response to a product after viewing the advertisement. Using data from Edmunds about the lift generated by auto commercials during the big game, The Truth About Cars reported that Mercedes-Benz was the night’s big winner. TTAC maintained that the CLA Soul advertisement generated a whopping 3,067% of lift when it aired in the fourth quarter. The report also indicated that Volkswagen’s Get Happy ad and Lincoln’s Phoenix spot for the new MKZ were among the poorest performers on the night.

In an entirely separate study, car-number crunchers Autometrics had some dramatically different results (see the press release, below). In its report, Autometrics found the Lincoln MKZ spot to be the most successful of the evening, with an event-leading 42% “Share of Lift” and a massive 5,800% increase in “prospects.”

Moving into anecdotal review of the commercials, we see some evidence that the tenderhearted ads from Ram and Jeep were winners on the evening. USA Today interviewed former General Motors and Hyundai marketing chief Joel Ewanick, who personally found Ram’s Farmer commercial to be the most compelling. Ewanick reportedly considered Jeep’s Whole Again tribute to American servicemen and servicewomen to be the “second-best” spot. Of course, if you ask media expert Frank Luntz of CBS to talk about his reaction data, he’ll tell you that Farmer was one of the least successful ads of the game, while Kia’s Space Babies commercial was the toast of the Super Bowl as far as car makers go. Oh, and Luntz also claims that the CLA spot that the Edmunds data loved was “not distinguishable.” Go figure. Scroll down to watch the CBS breakdown video, below.

Who’s ready for that test drive now?

Continue reading Ad Analysis: Which Super Bowl commercials won and lost last night? [w/video]

Ad Analysis: Which Super Bowl commercials won and lost last night? [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

‘Chevy Runs Deep’ Finally Deep-Sixed

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By Kurt Ernst

History, we suspect, will not be kind to ad slogans developed by Chevrolet in recent years. While past pitches such as “Like A Rock” were at least evocative, phrases like “An American Revolution” and “We’ll Be There” didn’t do much to conjure up images of cars. While “Excellence For Everyone” had promise, Chevy used it for about 15 minutes before embracing “Chevy Runs Deep.”

To be honest, even we don’t know what that was supposed to mean, and we suspect that “Chevy… Because Wolverine” would have been equally effective. Regardless of our negative opinion (and for the record, an opinion shared by virtually everyone else who writes about cars for a living), GM stuck with the tagline for two years, which is about three years longer than it should have.

Now that former marketing head Joel Ewanick is gone, it’s time for a new slogan, and Chevy’s latest pitch will be “Find New Roads.” It’s no “Like A Rock,” to be sure, and we don’t think it measures up to “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet,” but it’s a giant improvement over “Chevy Runs Deep.”

Mary Barra, Chevy’s senior vice president of global product development, explains the slogan as, “Find New Roads embraces the spirit of ingenuity that has been in Chevrolet’s DNA since the beginning and it will continue to guide every aspect of our business moving forward. We have sold Chevrolets around the world for almost a century, but this is the first time we have aligned behind one global vision.”

As a global rallying slogan, we suppose that could work. Until, of course, someone realizes that the phrase means something entirely unfavorable in another language.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Automotive Addicts