General Motors Co. says that its global chief marketing officer, Joel Ewanick, has resigned from the Detroit auto maker effective immediately. The announcement comes following several major changes to the company’s advertising approach and just ahead of its second-quarter earnings report on Thursday.
G.M. said Sunday that Ewanick had elected to resign and his decision is effective immediately. The 52-year old executive joined the company in 2010 to oversee marketing for the company’s North American unit and was promoted within months to head its global marketing business.
Ewanick is an auto industry veteran, having worked for Nissan North America and Hyundai Motor America. He is considered the mastermind behind Hyundai’s offer to take back cars if buyers lost their jobs, a marketing effort which helped bring in buyers who may have otherwise sat on the sidelines due to the recession.
G.M hired Ewanick with the hopes he would find something similarly innovative to shake up its marketing and improve sales.
However, his time at G.M. has been less inspired by some measures. Ewanick was at the helm for the launch of the “Chevy Runs Deep” campaign, which failed to resonate with consumers. He also was at the head of marketing as it made several surprising changes to its advertising approach.
The company announced this spring that it would pull $10 million in ads from Facebook, saying they weren’t effective. It also decided not advertise at the Super Bowl due to price hikes demanded for the air time. The Super Bowl traditionally is advertising’s biggest spectacle, with automakers buying up a big chunk of air time.
This is not the only executive change as G.M. tries to regain its footing. The company replaced its European CEO earlier this month amid a difficult effort to turn around its money-losing Opel and Vauxhall businesses there.
G.M. is still 26 percent owned by the by the U.S. government, which received stock in exchange for a controversial $49.5 billion bailout that got the company through bankruptcy protection. The company is far leaner and free of massive debt now, but is still in recovery mode.
The company reported a $1 billion net profit in the first quarter and is expected to report a profit again in its second-quarter financial results this week.
Director Ayse Altinok Joins Good Times For U.S. Commercial Representation
Director and writer Ayse Altinok has joined commercial production company Good Times for U.S. representation. Altinok has directed campaigns for Nike, Horizon Milk, Larabar, Jose Cuervo, Unilever, Mavi Jeans, Boots, Lumene, and more.
A former art director at Wieden + Kennedy in Amsterdam and Portland, she approaches each project with careful consideration, analyzing the end goal as a first step and uncovering meaningful moments along the way. Her work features a cinematic, dreamlike quality and elevated aesthetic.
“Having the right chemistry and karma is very powerful and that’s what attracted me to Good Times, and also timing,” said Altinok. “It’s a place where I can continue to push myself as a filmmaker and try new things, whether it’s for a traditional commercial spot or a high concept art project and everything in between.”
“I’ve worked with Ayse for 20 years and she’s super talented. She’s great at finding gems in stories that would otherwise be overlooked, and her aesthetic is phenomenal,” noted Bernadette Spear, executive producer at Good Times. “She can also empathize with creatives, because she’s lived in that world and understands what our clients face and knows how to support their vision.”
Throughout her career, Altinok’s work has won many industry accolades, including awards from The One Show, Clio, Art Directors Club, AICP, and the ANDYs. In 2016, she was nominated for a D&AD Next Director Award for her short film A Day at the Mall Reminds Me of America, a motion poem. Her first short film, 2009’s Hortum was an official selection of 11 film festivals worldwide and won the Special Jury Prize for Best Drama at the Amsterdam Film Festival.
Outside of her short... Read More