Bloomberg reports that the American Revolution may have to continue (start?) without America’s small town atheletes. “Chevrolet will stop promotions tied to college sports and only advertise during games, said Philip Caruso, national promotions manager. The brand will also eliminate partnerships with some of the smaller sports such as skiing, he said.” When you’re shutting off escalators and limiting voice mail to save some money, excising a big chunk of change like this makes sense. That said, check this out. “The economy is making us re-look at everything we do,” Caruso said in an interview after awarding Major League Baseball’s Roberto Clemente Award at the World Series in Philadelphia. “It’s cutting back mainly spending in the sports area and promotions as a whole, and then reallocating in some of those areas that help grow our business.” So, does that mean the previous ad spend wasn’t helping them grow their business? D’oh!
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I’m still waiting for the announcement they are pulling out of NASCAR. I have to wonder how much they sink into that mess.
The last line captures my thoughts exactly.
Either the ad money should never have been spent this way, or it should still be spent this way.
I also cannot believe that they are involved in NASCAR still.
If it were my company, I would pull out of NASCAR immediately, and focus any sports car related advertising on the Corvette Race Team efforts.
Very few people connect NASCAR with real production cars anymore.
I will add my voice to the chorus of ‘forget NASCAR’. When was the last year a NASCAR vehicle closely resembled a production car? Sometime in the late 70s? I have never believed for a moment that NASCAR pays off for any of the Detroit 3. I can see Toyota trying it to show ‘Hey, we are your friends and neighbors, really!’ but even then.
All these stories over the last couple weeks with silly and not so silly cost cutting, plus the merger garbage lead me to expect truly frightening numbers when GM announces 3rd qtr results. (on halloween I believe)
It’s like the kid who stops doing math homework, totally bombing in class. But the day report cards go out they are sitting at the kitchen table working hard on it when the parents get home.
Does this mean that we will no longer have Pontiac’s rebadge of the game game changing moment?
For those who think they should get out of NASCAR,
you are confusing Marketing with Reality, Get over it!
Plus like the guy at 5th gear said. “half a NASCAR race is more entertaining than an entire F1 season”
Juniper can you translate or restate in plain english why GM should spend their few remaining resources on NASCAR?
Oh thank god, no more of those damn This is our Country videos at every break during an NFL game…
Now if someone could shoot the annoying gekko at every MLB break, we’d have some sanity back.
Sherman Lin
I will do my best.
Obviously GM has to cut back everywhere including advertising. But to stop all ads would be foolish.
NASCAR has 250 million viewers each season. That is a lot of exposure. Plus, it is my opinion that these viewers are quite likely to consider a GM product if shopping for a new, or even used vehicle. And if you don’t like NASCAR, you aren’t watching, and don’t have to “suffer” thru the ads.
I’d be for Chevy staying in NASCAR if NASCAR went back to its roots. They’ve forgotten that “SC” once meant “stock car.” Okay, the cars were always modified to some degree, but there was a time when fans could watch competition between cars much like the ones they drove to the track. “Race on Sunday, sell on Monday” was true then.
So let’s see races between mostly-stock cars, with modifications mainly for safety (and common sense–straight pipes for sure; who wants to see a quiet race?). Limit gas tanks to five gallons, so efficient 4’s can compete against big V8’s, and put a sharp-cornered Ess in the course so braking, cornering and acceleration are important.
How about dropping all the concept cars and show cars that never see production. If you don’t plan on building it why waste money making them ?.