Chris Perry is the new marketing chief at Chevrolet.
Since emerging from bankruptcy, last year, General Motors has struggled to pick up its normally torpid pace, and no one seems to be more willing to move on Silicon Valley time more than the maker’s new marketing czar, Joel Ewanick.
Since arriving in Detroit, earlier this year, from Hyundai — via a brief detour to Nissan — Ewanick has shown himself anything but content with the status quo at GM’s oft-maligned marketing operations. The former Hyundai wiz kid has tossed out old ad agencies and created new alliances. Now, Ewanick is at it again, shuffling management at GM’s largest and most important brand.
Then again, ousted Chevy General Manager Jim Campbell didn’t exactly help his own cause, his relocation coming just two months after attaching his name to a much-maligned memo imploring GM employees to say “Chevrolet” rather than the popular “Chevy” nickname.
The affable Campbell was generally well-liked within the traditional GM organization. But the old-boys network has never been weaker at the company, as Ewanick’s soon-to-retire boss, CEO Ed Whitacre, has proven repeatedly, over the last 14 months, with his own grand realignments. Now, it would appear that Ewanick is looking to stamp his own imprint on the company. And, three months after arriving at GM, he is placing one of his own guys, former Hyundai marketer Chris Perry, in the critical position of running GM’s biggest and most important division.
“I have worked with Chris in the past and know he will use his unique ability to integrate strategic and creative marketing activities across all communications disciplines to reconnect consumers to the Chevrolet brand,” Ewanick said.
Perry, 50, joined Hyundai in 2000 as the head of brand planning. While at Hyundai, he progressed through a variety of brand, marketing and advertising positions, before being named vice president, marketing communications in April, 2010.
Ousted Chevrolet marketing chief Jim Campbell will still be a power player, handling the same duties for Performance Vehicles and Motorsports.
Prior to joining Hyundai, Perry spent nearly 10 years at American Isuzu Motors, where he held a variety of marketing and advertising positions.
Campbell had only held the marketing vice president position at Chevy since December 2009.
Campbell, who was named vice president of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. In his new assignment, Campbell will be responsible for integrating the engineering and marketing of performance versions of current production models, as well as all motorsports activities.
Before serving as vice president, Chevrolet marketing, Campbell, 46, led GM’s Fleet and Commercial Operations. Prior to Fleet and Commercial, he held various positions in field sales, retail incentives, marketing and customer relationship management. He has broad experience with performance vehicles like Corvette and Camaro and has worked extensively across a variety of race series, including NASCAR, American LeMans Series and Grand Am Road Racing.
In June, a memo leaked to the New York Times asking GM employees to refer to the brand by its formal name, Chevrolet, instead of Chevy. GM quickly responded to the controversy, calling the memo “poorly worded” and adding that the company loves the passion its customers have for their Chevy products.
Some have wondered if the memo was a carefully crafted ploy for free media exposure since it generated hundreds of news stories and perhaps millions of facebook posts and twitter tweets.