• by Karl Greenberg , February 10, 2015

Jon Brancheau, Nissan North America's head of marketing in the U.S. until last June, has resurfaced with marketing and merchandising firm FMReps Distribution, Inc., as VP of sales. He reports to John Ferszt, FMR’s president and CEO. “I’ve known Jon for many years and have closely followed his career in the automotive industry. I’m confident he will bring his years of savvy leadership and expertise in helping to lead the way for FMR’s business growth,” said Ferszt in a statement.

FMR works in the automotive and automotive aftermarket sectors, as well as in travel, home-improvement and insurance industries.

Said Brancheau, in a statement: “FMR has been at the cutting edge of industry-leading customer-loyalty initiatives and marketing programs for years. I'm particularly impressed with FMR's exclusive amateur soccer properties. They provide consumer brands with huge opportunities in this space.”

Brancheau, who became VP marketing at Nissan in 2010, was responsible for a roster of product and brand-awareness programs, including Nissan’s title sponsorship and activation, with ESPN, against the Heisman Trophy. The brand’s involvement with the Heisman Trust began in 2005, but starting in 2011, Nissan launched an umbrella campaign with humorous ads in which current and former Heisman winners live together, fraternity style, in a mansion, and bicker. And it includes a large experiential Nissan Heisman House content and exhibition footprint at NCAA games (with Sports Illustrated and ESPN), in a mock-up of the mansion in the ads.

In 2013 and 2014, Nissan did separate programs with Amazon. The first was a promotion in which an unsuspecting customer took delivery of a Versa Note subcompact car in a huge Amazon box. Last year Nissan’s Amazon program let people order the car on a microsite, part of the “More of What You Love” campaign for the car. Also last year, the company put a Nissan Rogue in a giant locker in San Francisco.   

On the digital front, there was the 2012 “Project 370Z” campaign where people could design their own 370Z. Nissan did something similar in arguably Brancheau’s last campaign, with Project Titan, where consumers could vote for modifications to be added to a one-off 2014 Titan. Prior to that, Brancheau was director of global marketing communications for Infiniti, director of General Motors’ media operations, director of Cadillac marketing and VP of marketing for Saab Cars U.S.A. Brancheau will continue to oversee Chapter 3 insights (C3i), the Nashville-based strategic advisor and global marketing consulting firm he recently founded.