General Motors, the car manufacturer that had seemed to have lost the plot when it pulled multi-million dollar advertising from social media giant Facebook and then days later cancelling its ad spend on American institution the Super Bowl (and withdrawing the GM name from about 200m consumers whilst doing so) has hit back in a big way.
United, who yesterday were announced as the best-supported football club with 659 million fans worldwide (approximatley 10% of the world's population) are expected to be Chevrolet's newest advertising partner, according to Bloomberg.
Chevrolet sold a record 4.76 million vehicles globally last year, with sales of the brand in China rose 9.5 percent to 595,068 units, according to the company. With United scheduled to play two friendly games in China this summer, the move has been timed to marketing perfection."The world’s largest automaker has invited reporters to a announcement by Chevrolet and Manchester United in Shanghai on the evening of May 31. Joel Ewanick, GM’s chief marketing officer, will subsequently hold a briefing at the company’s Detroit headquarters about a Chevrolet global sports marketing initiative."
“Our followers have doubled in five years,” Manchester United’s commercial director Richard Arnold told reporters in London yesterday. “It’s important to the club, not only for commercial partnerships: It gives us a road map to understand exactly what’s going on.” GM executive director of global marketing strategy Paul Edwards went further."If our aspirations are to build global icon status for Chevrolet ... soccer far and away is the world's biggest sport," he said in an interview. "Manchester United stands head and shoulders above the other teams in terms of scale, brand value and their legacy in the sport."
United already have lucrative sponsorship deals with DHL, Nike and Aon, and before this deail, Audi. Chevrolet and General Motors might just be their biggest yet.
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