In 2009, in the midst of a global recession and one of the worst periods in automotive history, Joel Ewanick was at the top of the world; yesterday, with sales back on track, he was ousted at General Motors.
GM is the U.S.'s second largest advertiser (P&G is the first), and Ewanick controlled at least $1.9 billion in ad spending in America.
Ewanick, who had previously worked at Porsche, Yamaha, and Saatchi & Saatchi overseeing the Lexus account, was once the vp of marketing for South Korean automaker Hyundai—arguably the hottest car brand of 2009.
The largely unheralded Korean automaker posted gigantic sales numbers while the rest of the industry was collectively in turmoil. Success came thanks to a complete revamp of the portfolio, improvement in quality, and aggressive brand awareness through a series of campaigns which Ewanick oversaw.
Quite simply, Ewanick—at Hyundai—was the hottest name in the automotive industry. In March of 2010, Ewanick left Hyundai, ending up at General Motors, where he has been the center of some of the most controversial recent decisions in the automotive and advertising worlds.
The road to Hyundai ...
From 1990-1998 Ewanick was the general manager of marketing for Porsche Cars North America. In 1999 he joined The Hinckley Company/Monitor Clipper, where he would eventually oversee the Hyundai account. He would then follow Hyundai account to the Dallas-based Richards Group agency, the before leaving in 2007 to take the vp of marketing position at Hyundai.
Riding high at Hyundai in 2009.
In January, Hyundai kicked off its Hyundai Assurance program — it was a huge success. The concept was simple, buy a Hyundai and if you lose your job in the next 12 months you can return the car and not have to make another payment.
It raised brand awareness (and fewer than 100 people actually returned the car). In the summer, the Assurance Gas Lock was added, which gave customers $1.49 gas for a year. These programs, along with new models like the Genesis, propelled Hyundai to gigantic profits in the midst of the worst economic times for automakers. Hyundai was one of three automakers to post positive year-to-year daily sale rate.
Forbes named Ewanick CMO of the year, Automotive News gave him "All Star of the Year" honors, Brandweek named him Grand Marketer of the Year, and Ad Age named Hyundai "Marketer of the Year."
Then there was a really short stint at Nissan.
On March 18, 2010, Ewanick left for Nissan; 48 days later he was named vp of U.S. marketing for GM. There's a lot of speculation about what went on at Nissan, but according to some sources, Nissan was Ewanick's second choice to GM.
In addition, the numbers-centric Nissan was probably not the best place for Ewanick. There were also murmurs GM offered Ewanick a job prior to his tenure at Nissan, but with more restrictions than he would have liked.
To this day, it's difficult to figure out what Ewanick did in his less than 50-day tenure at Nissan.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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