GM hires VW's Mahoney to steer Chevy global marketing
 | Mahoney will be responsible for unifiying Chevrolet's identity globally. Photo credit: GM |
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DETROIT -- General Motors named Volkswagen executive Tim Mahoney to the newly created post of global chief marketing officer for Chevrolet.
Mahoney also will carry the title of global GM marketing operations leader, reporting to Alan Batey, vice president of U.S. sales and service and interim global chief marketing officer.
Mahoney, 56, will assume both roles on April 1. He has been chief product and marketing officer at Volkswagen of America since May 2011.
Mahoney's appointment marks a key step in CEO Dan Akerson's overhaul of GM's marketing structure to strengthen the messaging behind Chevrolet and Cadillac, which he wants to transform into bigger global players.
It also comes as GM launches a new Chevrolet marketing platform, "Find New Roads," which the company says will serve as a global tagline for its largest brand and as a guiding vision for everything from its product development to retail strategy.
Chevrolet also is embarking on one of its busiest vehicle-launch schedule ever, with 13 new or redesigned models slated for the United States this year and about a dozen launches planned overseas.
Chris Perry will continue to serve as vice president of U.S. Chevrolet marketing, a GM spokesman said.
"Tim's experience and passion for the automotive marketing business, combined with his innovative and collaborative style, has made him one of the most respected marketers in the business," Batey said in a statement.
Continuing as interim
The GM spokesman said Batey will continue to serve as interim CMO, a role he assumed in July following the ouster of former top marketer Joel Ewanick.
It's unclear whether Batey will become the permanent global CMO, whether someone else will be named to that post, or whether the job will go unfilled. GM is "looking at different options," a spokesman said.
Late last year, Akerson told Automotive News that GM would "probably not" name a global CMO, explaining that Ewanick spent most of his time on global Chevy marketing anyway.
It's also unclear whether Akerson plans to name a global head of Chevrolet, akin to a post he created for Cadillac. In October, Bob Ferguson was tapped as the luxury brand's global vice president in charge of marketing, sales and other functions.
"We're going to have two global brands: Chevrolet and Cadillac," Akerson told Automotive News in November. "To be a global brand, you need global oversight."
Global identity
Mahoney will be responsible for unifiying Chevrolet's identity globally through the "Find New Roads" campaign, something that the recently phased-out "Chevy Runs Deep" tag line didn't accomplish, executives have said.
In another move aimed at aligning Chevy's global message, GM last year moved its Chevrolet creative work from dozens of advertising agencies worldwide to just one, Detroit's Commonwealth. The agency is a joint venture between Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and McCann Erickson Worldwide. GM also consolidated its global media buying under London-based Aegis' Carat unit.
Mahoney's marketing-operations role will include coordinating media buying and other duties for GM's brands, the spokesman said.
More humor
Since he became VW of America's top marketer in May 2011, Mahoney has overhauled the brand's creative advertising to focus on emotional appeal. He kept VW's "That's the Power of German Engineering," tag line but added more people and humor to its commercials.
Mahoney began his automotive career in 1984 as a marketing research analyst for Subaru of America. In the mid-1990s, he was part of the team that revived the brand by shifting all of its vehicles to all-wheel drive and giving it more recognition with the ads featuring Australian actor Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan.
Mahoney left Subaru in 1999 to become a marketing manager and later head marketer for Porsche in North America, where he served until returning to Subaru in 2006.
You can reach Mike Colias at mcolias@crain.com.
