• by Karl Greenberg , June 20, 2013

Chevrolet's total redesign of the Impala is "Made to Love." The name refers to John Legend's new single. The song by the nine-time Grammy winner is featured in Impala's new marketing campaign that debuts on Game 7 of the NBA Finals on ABC tonight. 

The campaign kicks off with a spot showing Legend himself in his apartment, struggling with lyrics, then grabbing his keys and heading out. He drives around the city, seeing things he uses to get inspiration. Including the Impala. 

Per GM, Legend's first car was a Chevrolet, and he has been a vocal supporter and advocate of the resurgence of Detroit and the U.S. auto industry.

Spike DDB -- Spike Lee’s advertising agency, which is under the umbrella of Chevrolet's agency group Commonwealth -- developed the concept with film, music video, and commercial director Anthony Mandler of Believe Media. 

The campaign, which will live alongside the current Impala work, will include radio, print, digital, social media and cinema, per GM. It will appear across general market and African American-focused media properties.

Chevrolet started trumpeting the car in March with a tie to Major League Baseball. It was also the first bona fide campaign under the "Find new roads" global ad banner. The umbrella campaign is via McCann Worldgroup's dedicated Chevrolet agency, Commonwealth. 

"Obviously, Impala was huge launch for us," says Mary Kubitskey, Chevrolet national advertising manager. She tells Marketing Daily that Spike DDB came to Chevy with the idea of the partnership with Legend. "It has perfect relevance for the African-American consumers but also huge crossover, so we knew it was the right place for us."

She says the campaign will run until the second quarter of next year, driven to a great extent by online content. "We have lots of assets -- all kinds of behind-the-scenes content on our site to work with.” 

Besides TV set to run through the summer and fall, social components include Legend talking to his fan base about the car, amplifying what he's doing in print and radio for the car, per Kubitskey. 

The automaker has been active lately as it is rolling out new vehicles this year, including the Stingray, and new Silverado pickup truck and putting a focus on vehicles like the Sonic and Cruz with social media campaigns and crowd sourcing.