Chevy to get post-crisis marketing boost

DETROIT (Reuters) - The board of General Motors Co has approved plans to boost ad spending on vehicles from its flagship Chevrolet brand that saw their recent launches overshadowed by the automaker's bankruptcy, Chevrolet's top executive said on Thursday.

"Last year we launched Camaro, Equinox and Traverse -- all three successful in the marketplace -- but (we) didn't really have a chance of telling the story to consumers," Chevrolet global chief Brent Dewar said at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit.

Dewar said GM's board has endorsed plans for a substantial increase in the marketing budget for the vehicles, part of a stepped-up ad campaign GM is running under the slogan "May the Best Car Win."

"We were in the launch last year during our financial crisis and we just didn't get a chance to tell the story, so I am going to try to do that," Dewar said.

Dewar has put the global advertising campaign for Chevy up for grabs and said he is meeting with a lot of ad agencies looking to take a share of the business.

Detroit-based Campbell-Ewald, which has represented Chevy for 80 years, will remain the brand's main advertising agency, although Dewar said he is open to hearing other pitches. Campbell-Ewald is part of Interpublic Group of Cos Inc.

Chevrolet now accounts for half of GM's sales and that share is expected to grow to 70 percent, Dewar said.

Chevy has always been GM's mass-market brand, with a product line stretching from Silverado pickup trucks to the Corvette sports car.

Dealers and analysts say Chevy's importance to GM increased after the automaker opted to drop the Pontiac, Hummer, Saab and Saturn brands.

Dewar, who had most recently headed sales for GM in Europe, was appointed to the new position of vice president for Chevy's global operations in July as GM exited a fast-track bankruptcy.

As part of the push to take Chevy into fast-growth overseas markets, Dewar said GM has decided to stop using the tagline "An American Revolution," the five-year-old advertising theme for the brand.

"I had to change up a little bit of the thought process," Dewar said. "We will go away from our campaign 'American Revolution' because it doesn't play on a global basis."

About 60 percent of Chevrolet's sales are outside the United States, mainly because of the downturn in the U.S. auto industry, he said. The percentage of sales is likely to be roughly 50-50 in the future, he said.

"This is an opportunity of the new company," Dewar said, saying that GM's bankruptcy had thrown its marketing plans off track and taken the focus away from new vehicle launches.

"You mix your messages," he said.

(Reporting by David Bailey, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)