GM Might Return to Facebook Advertising: Exec Says
GM’s about-face advertising policy raised a few eyebrows this month, but based on the latest from GM global chief marketing officer Joel Ewanick, the company might not be quite as far over the cuckoo’s nest as you might think.
Recently, the company pulled its entire $10 million ad budget from Facebook in a move meant to inflict maximum pain — sheer days before the social media outlet’s IPO. Only a short time later, it also declared that there wouldn’t be any GM ads in this year’s superbowl, a departure from tradition for the company. Only yesterday, we brought you a story about one of the group’s best-known brands, Chevrolet, signing a sponsorship deal with Manchester United, a soccer team.
For such an American company that might seem ludicrous, but according to Ward’s Auto tweets that Ewanick said GM is far from pulling out of advertising with teh NFL. In fact, it remains the largest advertiser and actually plans to increase its budget for this year.
Furthermore, GM advertising might actually return to Facebook in the future if the two can reach an agreement, Ewanick said. The problem is that advertising on Facebook, and probably the Superbowl too, costs a lot of money and doesn’t necessarily return the same results other avenues might. Because of that, it’s easy to see both instances as a vacuous waste.
Having tanked after only a short time on the stock market, Facebook is down billions and GM is left looking wise and clever. While the social network might not have been eager to run flashier ads for General Motors while it was riding high on anticipated wealth, the story might have changed. The end result? It’s indeterminate, but GM will probably clean up on ad prices this year. It’s just a shame that won’t translate into more obnoxious Superbowl ads.
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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Nice play by GM. Stupid Zuckerberg.