• by Karl Greenberg , August 9, 2010

In this third and final segment, Joel Ewanick, VP of marketing at General Motors, talks about Campbell-Ewald's last work for Chevrolet in terms of major ad creative, including a raft of new ads coming in September.

Q: What's Campbell-Ewald doing now? I saw that truck video for Silverado Heavy Duty. Is that it?

A: They are working on a campaign right now that's going to run in September for the Heavy Duty trucks. It's called "Max and Al," playing on Duramax and Allison Transmissions. It's a great, somewhat funny, tongue-in-cheek sub-campaign under the Chevrolet brand.

But I want to make a point that the Campbell-Ewald guys are really being very professional on how they are handling the transition to Goodby, Silverstein. It's an enormous account, and a lot of them spent most of their professional careers working on Chevrolet. They are still giving "A" work.

Q: What's next for them?

A: They will play a huge role in dealer marketing and they do CRM as well; they are doing a lot of that work.

Q: Their video for Heavy Duty is fascinating because it's one of these rare ads where there's no voiceover, no music -- just the sound of the engine, the rotors, engine braking, the wheel hubs. It's very tactile.

A:Yeah. Well, that target audience cares about those things more than they care about what the truck looks like. And, by the way, the truck looks good, too. So that helps.

Q: And what's with the snow-plow image that comes up on the front end of the truck?

A: It's the first time we have had standard, manufacturer-equipped snow plowing. Before, it was an awkward conversion kit. Believe it or not, to that target audience with towing capacity, box frame, torque, transmission, braking -- in their minds they are mentally checking the boxes. That's what they do every day when they're driving the trucks.

And we have a couple of new spots coming, one that shows the truck simply going up and down steep hills. Simple thing, but for a guy who has done this many times, with the way we show it -- it's a safety thing. It's like one of these moments when for someone who's been there, and didn't have enough power to make that hill, it's life or death. How am I getting out of this situation?

Q: Why so much attention on a small part of the market?

A: Trucks are bigger than the compact car segment. Heavy-duty carries over to pickups. That's the plan. The Max and Al campaign is designed to do that as well. September is the big truck launch for us, and that's in a way the heavy-duty represents all of Chevy trucks, just like Corvette is a halo vehicle and Camaro is a halo vehicle. And we are essentially doing sub-branding with Duramax and Allison.