With GM pulling an about-"face" and now returning to Facebook as a limited advertiser, could the company's re-embrace of Super Bowl advertising be far off? Either way, Facebook is continuing to push skeptical advertisers to take a closer look at its site.

Chevrolet is advertising on Facebook again, in a test of mobile ads for the Chevy Sonic, less than a year after General Motors' very public repudiation of the effectiveness of paid advertising on the site. The brand "is testing a number of mobile advertising solutions, including Facebook, as part of its 'Find New Roads' campaign," Chris Perry, vice president of U.S. Chevrolet marketing, said in a confirming statement issued by GM in the wake of a story published by Advertising Age.

It's an "industry-first mobile-only pilot campaign" for Sonic that "utilizes newly available targeting and measurement capabilities of Facebook."Continue reading...

With the hiring away of Tim Mahoney from Volkswagen as Chevrolet's global chief marketing officer, General Motors appears to be moving one more step closer to a long-discussed goal of obliterating the GM "brand" altogether.

Mahoney—who has helped VW achieve strong double-digit sales gains in the U.S. in each of the last three years—has been named to the newly created post of global CMO for Chevrolet and of global GM marketing operations leader.

Because Mahoney, a three-decade veteran of automotive marketing, will report to GM's interim CMO, Alan Batey, his addition bulks up the Chevrolet brand that Batey also has been heading up for the last year, including recently replacing the "Chevrolet Runs Deep" tagline with the "Find New Roads" positioning.

Batey was vice president of U.S. sales and service and then took over as interim CMO for the corporation when GM's global CMO Joel Ewanick departed abruptly last year.Continue reading...

General Motors is sticking with its pledge not to advertise during this year's Super Bowl, interim CMO Alan Batey told brandchannel. But the automaker's VP of U.S. sales, service and global marketing declined to rule out an advertising kick-off of the Chevrolet brand's new tag line, "Find New Roads," during TV spots before or after the Big Game on February 3 on CBS.

And in the meantime, Batey and Chevrolet do have their own huge moment to share with the world: sponsorship of Sunday's football (as in soccer) match between the Manchester United team and Liverpool in the U.K., which Batey said would fetch a global TV audience that could be much larger than the worldwide draw for the Super Bowl.

"This platform is huge for us, and it's really only the beginning of our relationship" with Manchester United, Liverpool and the Barclays Premier League, Batey said. "It will be a huge part of creating awareness for Chevy around the world." And taking advantage of — as well as boosting — Chevy's increasingly global platform is one main reason for the new "Find New Roads" positioning, which is replacing the lackluster "Chevy Runs Deep."Continue reading...

Aston Martin draws bids.

ConAgra to buy Ralcorp in huge packaged-foods deal.

Nintendo sells out Wii U in first week in US.

Adidas features celebs including Snoop Lion, other celebrities in Ebenezer Scrooge holiday campaign.

Airbus jabs Boeing with "Pinocchio nose" in ad campaign.

Barnes & Noble updates holiday wish lists via Nook campaign.

Bombardier signs largest-ever deal, with VistaJet.

Ericsson files patent claim against Samsung.

Mario Batali expands restaurant empire to Boston.Continue reading...

Chevrolet has been coming up with one spiffy new car model after another. Its Cruze, Sonic and now Spark small cars have been big hits; its Equinox crossover continues to sell well; the Volt plug-in now is reaching nearly 3,000 sales a month; and the Chevy Silverado continues to sell strong.

Yet for October, GM's monthly sales tally showed that Chevrolet had the lowest sales uptick of any of the four GM brands, just 2.7 percent, while Chevy's overall sales rose by 4.7 percent over a year earlier. For the entire year to date, Chevy did outperform each of its siblling brands.

But the question remains: Is there some reason Chevy isn't doing better as a brand amid ever-rising gas prices that favor its largely fuel-economic fleet?Continue reading...

In 2002, Nike agreed to fork over £303 million ($485 million) and give a share of retail sales to Manchester United so its iconic swoosh could grace the home kit, away kit and related apparel of the world's most popular soccer team. But their 13-year agreement comes to an end in 2015, and the word from the Daily Mail is that the two sides are in the midst of negotiating a new deal that could pay the Red Devils a massive £1 billion ($1.6 billion).

If signed, it’ll be the largest sponsorship deal in all of sports. Not too shabby for a team that Forbes ranked as the top of its annual ranking of the world’s 50 most valuable sports teams. Forbes valued ManU at $2.23 billion, $350 million more than the second team on the list, Real Madrid. 

Nike will have a six-month window to negotiate, the Mail reports. Sure to be mentioned in the talks is the fact that GM's Chevrolet division agreed this summer to shell out $559 million over seven years so Manchester United would sport Chevy's logo on the front of the shirt — the terms of which contributed to the ouster of GM's former CMO, Joel Ewanick.Continue reading...

Ford has taken some arrows as the auto industry's social-media-marketing leader, most notably around a staged press conference in Sept. 2011 that was pushed out on social media. But for the most part, the automaker's social aggressiveness has helped it conquer new territory. Becoming an acknowledged trailblazer in the arena also has helped Ford sidestep potential problems that can attend companies if they get too far out on social-media limbs.

"Ford being well-respected ... in the social space, has given us an added level of credibility and it has given us a legion of fans who actually act as our eyes and ears and who can flag stuff for us," Scott Monty, Ford's director of social media, told Business Insider. People are "looking out for our best interests and will say, you know, 'You guys might want to take a look at this.'" Including, evidently, the company's CEO.Continue reading...

GM's former CMO Joel Ewanick may have pulled the plug on any plans by GM brands to advertise during the 2013 Super Bowl in favor of Manchester United before he abruptly left the automaker in July, but that isn't stopping the GMC brand from redoubling its long-running interest and investment in the National Football League.

Just consider the 30-some GMC Sierra pick-up trucks that just took over Times Square for the NFL Kick-Off (check out the pictures on Facebook). "Nothing changes for us" in terms of the GMC brand's association with the nation's most popular sport — and a brand marketers' best friend — Chris Hornberger, GMC national sales promotion manager, told brandchannel. It's been three years since the GMC brand or vehicles have been featured in a Super Bowl ad anyway.

GMC is one of a chorus of brands that continues to increase their bets on professional football with this week's kick-off of the official season "like children anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus," as New York Times ad columnist Stuart Elliott put it. Nothing else comes close to matching NFL games as a prime-time TV-advertising vehicle, but there are doubters.Continue reading...