A ray of light for GM?

Yesterday new GM marketing director Joel Ewanick made the first smart marketing decision I've seen from GM in a long time. According to reports in Ad Age, he pulled the Chevy business from Publicis, the French-owned conglomerate that recently won the account, and handed national advertising to Goodby-Silverstein and dealer advertising along with several other key assignments back to Campbell-Ewald.

If you're not familiar with Goodby-Silverstein, there work has long been terrific. They are one of the few agencies who've actually managed to marry a solid strategic foundation and consumer insights with first-class creative thinking to create memorable campaigns that actually move the needle for their clients.

Founded twenty some years ago by two refugees from Hal Riney & Partners, Saturn's original agency, highlights of their work include the long-running "Got Milk" campaign, great work for EBay, Specialized Bicycles, and Denny's. Their automotive credentials includes work for Porsche, Isuzu, and Saturn, as well as recently working with Mr. Ewanick to create the Hyundai Assurance program. Typically the folks at Goodby think way beyond the 30-second spot to create complete programs that engage the consumer on multiple levels. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Chevrolet. My guess is that it will be better than "Excellence for all" or whatever nonsense Publicis was cooking up.

The other good news from a personal standpoint is that a lot of work will be staying in Detroit at Campbell-Ewald and a lot of good people will get to keep their jobs.

All in all, a good first week on the job for Mr. Ewanick. Now lets see how good the work is.