By Chrissie Thompson; Detroit Free Press ~ Oct 25, 2010

This fall, General Motors will promote its Chevrolet brand with a new marketing theme, “Chevy runs deep,” aimed at representing the history of the brand while showcasing new products.

“Chevy runs deep” isn’t a tag line – it won’t appear in every ad for a Chevrolet product, U.S. marketing chief Joel Ewanick said, confirming information from sources. For instance, ads for the Volt extended-range electric vehicle will continue to use the “more car than electric” theme, Ewanick said.

GM made the ads with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, which won the Chevrolet account in May and is opening an office in the Francis Palms building downtown. Jeff Goodby, co-chairman and creative director for the agency, said the ads will solve two prior Chevrolet marketing problems: focusing only on the past, or forgetting Chevy’s legacy while talking too much about car and truck features.

“It’s such a deep, wide, connected brand in America,” Goodby said of Chevrolet. “All things being equal, Americans want to buy Chevys. And we have to put them in that position.”

The new work is GM’s first attempt at brand-wide advertising for Chevrolet since Ewanick’s arrival in May from his weeks-old job at Nissan. It uses the nostalgic “Chevy” label after the brand’s top U.S. sales and marketing executives in June asked employees to stop referring to the brand by its nickname, then reneged after widespread complaints.

The new Chevy strategy comes after a year of marketing turmoil, which started last summer, when the brand began publicly looking to replace its 5-year-old “American Revolution” tag line. After deciding to remain tagless, Chevrolet in April broke off a 91-year relationship with Warren-based ad agency Campbell-Ewald and said it would give its advertising contract to Publicis Worldwide.

The result of that relationship was the tag line “Excellence for All, ” which appeared only in print ads before Ewanick arrived in May and promptly canned the slogan. Days after arriving, he dismissed Publicis and chose San Francisco-based Goodby as Chevrolet’s agency.

In August, Ewanick replaced Chevrolet marketing head Jim Campbell with, Chris Perry, Ewanick’s former colleague from his three years at Hyundai. Perry is Chevrolet’s fourth top marketer since GM exited its bankruptcy in July 2009.

Contact CHRISSIE THOMPSON: 313-222-8784 or [email protected].