{"id":52083,"date":"2012-07-30T14:49:48","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T18:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=52083"},"modified":"2012-07-30T14:49:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T18:49:10","slug":"what-sank-gm-marketing-czar-ewanick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2012\/07\/what-sank-gm-marketing-czar-ewanick\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: What Sank GM Marketing Czar Ewanick?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Former GM Global Marketing Chief Joel Ewanick gone after two years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This story has been updated with more details on the apparent reasons for Joel Ewanick’s departure from General Motors.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Was it simply a matter of weak advertising and declining market share or was there something more sinister that sank Joel Ewanick, General Motors\u2019 hard-charging global marketing czar?<\/p>\n

In an unusual and unexpected move, GM issued a terse release announcing that the 52-year-old Ewanick would \u201cvoluntarily\u201d resign from the post he took in May 2010 promising to be an agent of change shaking up the automaker\u2019s traditionally staid approach to marketing.\u00a0 In his two years on the job, Ewanick showed no mercy, abandoning long-time GM ad agencies and walking away from traditional marketing alliances but while there may be many who now are feeling a sense of schadenfreude, or joy at his misfortune, the big question is what happened.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Your News Source!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GM\u2019s initial statement offered little to no clues and the automotive and marketing worlds were abuzz with questions related to the efficacy of the actions Ewanick has taken during his tenure, such as dropping long-time Chevrolet ad agency Campbell-Ewald, pulling GM out of the Super Bowl ad sweepstakes and aborting its ad deal with Facebook. But, a day after the news of his departure began leaking out, there are hints appearing of something more serious.<\/p>\n

Insiders now suggest that Ewanick ran afoul of GM policy in terms of handling the finances of a massive partnership the maker recently negotiated with European soccer super-team Manchester United.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe failed to meet the expectations the company has of its employees,\u201d stated senior GM spokesman Greg Martin, declining to discuss specifics.<\/p>\n

Two other GM sources, asking not to be identified by name because they were not approved spokespersons, used the same term, \u201cserious breaches\u201d to describe the issues that led to Ewanick\u2019s departure. But it does not appear that there are further legal problems facing either the automaker or Ewanick, which suggests the issue may be more about not following strict policies as opposed to any attempt at self-enrichment.<\/p>\n

GM initially considered describing the executive\u2019s ouster as a non-voluntary termination but chose to go with the more benign description, dubbing it a \u201cvoluntary\u2026resignation,\u201d after extensive negotiations likely to have involved legal teams for both GM and Ewanick.<\/p>\n

(Check out TheDetroitBureau.com’s initial report on Ewanick’s ouster. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If, indeed, there was an ethical breach what might it have involved?\u00a0 At this point, no one inside the company is saying and Ewanick isn\u2019t taking calls from the media, though he has sent e-mails out to friends admitting he was hurt by the firing.\u00a0 He also posted a Tweet stating, “It has been a privilege & honor to work with the GM Team and to be a small part of Detroit’s turnaround. I wish everyone at GM all the best.”<\/p>\n

The spotlight appears to be focusing on a high-profile partnership Chevrolet announced in late May, the sponsorship of the wildly popular Manchester United soccer team \u2013 which was soon after followed by a second deal with the Liverpool Football Club.<\/p>\n

A report in the Wall Street Journal contends that Ewanick failed “to properly vet the financial details of a European soccer-sponsorship deal that he struck recently.”<\/p>\n

The deal was announced just weeks after GM \u2013 which spends an estimated $4 billion annually on marketing \u2013 decided to pull out of the Super Bowl because of the steady rise in the televised extravaganza\u2019s advertising rates.<\/p>\n

While specific figures haven\u2019t been released the soccer \u2013 football to Europeans \u2013 deals were reportedly astronomical, though Ewanick defended them by noting that even a typical Manchester United game drew TV audiences rivaling the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

But the deals were announced just as GM was recognizing it would likely lose several billion dollars in Europe this year as the Continental car market collapses and the maker\u2019s Opel brand struggles for survival.\u00a0 The soccer tie-up apparently didn\u2019t sit well either with GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson or Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, the former Wall Street analyst now overseeing day-to-day operations in Europe.<\/p>\n

Girsky, in particular, appears to have been furious considering he is faced with having to make major cuts in Europe to try to save the faltering operations.<\/p>\n

That appears to mean a very rapid falling from favor.\u00a0 Only two weeks before the marketing chief’s ouster CEO Akerson described Ewanick as being “full of energy and vim and vigor,” and describing the 52-year-old as a “glass-breaker” who was “doing a good job.”<\/p>\n

Could Ewanick have fouled things up simply by not following the rules on the Manchester United deal? Barring an action that pushes into the criminal category \u2013 which clearly does not appear to be the case, insiders assured TheDetroitBureau.com \u2013 \u201cThings don\u2019t happen for just one reason at GM,\u201d stressed a former top-floor executive.\u00a0 It usually takes a series of missteps for someone of Ewanick\u2019s stature to be forced out.<\/p>\n

Several sources indicated that Ewanick has simply tried to move too quickly at a company that has traditionally prized stability \u2013 despite statements to the contrary from the likes of CEO Akerson.\u00a0 And, in the process, he may have run afoul of the old boys network, suggested Marty Bernstein, a long-time ad industry insider and columnist for TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n

It apparently did not help that news of GM\u2019s decision on Facebook advertising made the headlines just days before the social media site\u2019s highly promoted IPO, a stock sale that has, in hindsight, become one of the year\u2019s biggest disasters.\u00a0 Ewanick\u2019s decision underscored questions about Facebook\u2019s long-term business model.\u00a0 It has also triggered direct communications between top FB executives and GM CEO Akerson.<\/p>\n

While such moves were either hailed or derided as the signs of dramatic change there have been far fewer kudos for the advertising that has emerged from GM over the last two years.\u00a0 According to columnist Bernstein, \u201cdealers hate\u201d the Chevrolet one-price ads running in the Olympics because \u201cthey make them look sleazy.\u201d\u00a0 Ads for the new Cadillac ATS, showing a couple of young men racing the car in exotic locales, haven\u2019t scored much better.<\/p>\n

Of course, critics aren\u2019t the ones that matter. But the new advertising has had, at best, mixed results in the market place.\u00a0 Some new GM products have done spectacularly, notably including the newly updated Chevy Malibu, which came within a whisker of out-selling the vaunted Toyota Camry in June.\u00a0 Overall, though, GM has failed to keep up with the pace of the overall U.S. automotive market\u2019s 2012 recovery.<\/p>\n

“GM’s decline in market share likely played a part in the departure of Ewanick, who helped Hyundai gain market share in the U.S. with its creative marketing,” said Larry Dominique, Executive Vice President of TrueCar.com<\/a>, referring to Ewanick\u2019s earlier job as Hyundai Motor America marketing chief. “GM has introduced some impressive vehicles in the past few years yet because of so much competition in the marketplace GM’s marketing and advertising really didn’t help separate itself from other automakers.”<\/p>\n

What really sank Ewanick? GM, like most automakers, doesn\u2019t keep a secret very well, and more details are likely to leak out in the coming days.\u00a0 But the odds appear to favor a series of missteps and one major slip on the corporate banana peel bringing the global marketing czar down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The move was sudden and completely unexpected. There’s no question ousted GM global marketing czar Joel Ewanick ruffled plenty of feathers but what brought him down? The maker is hinting at something more serious than just a difference of opinion about GM advertising, sources suggesting there were “serious breaches” surrounding a big European soccer deal. More from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52083"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=52083"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=52083"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=52083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}