GM Says It's Dropping Out of Super Bowl Ad Race
By: Two days after being criticized for dropping direct adson Facebook, General Motorssaid it will also stop running ads during the Super Bowl.
In an interview Friday afternoon, Joel Ewanick, GM’s global marketing chief said, “We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the significant increase in price, we simply can't justify the expense.”
If Ewanick follows through and stays on the sidelines for the Super Bowl, it will be the first time since 2009 the world’s largest auto maker sat out the biggest game (and television event) in sports.
Ewanick is in the process of reviewing and consolidating GM’s global marketing operations. Last year, the company spent $4.2 Billion worldwide on marketing, including $1.8 billion in the U.S. CEO Dan Akerson has been pushing Ewanick to justify the money GM spends on everything from TV commercials tobanner ads on Facebook .
In fact, GM has decided not to spend $10 million on direct advertising on Facebook because it believes the banner ads are ineffective. That decision, coming two days before the Facebook IPOhas been criticized by many, including GM competitor Ford, who think Facebook is a platform that pays off for advertisers.
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