Dean
Evans, who managed the feel-good advertising at Subaru from 2011 to 2014 and
pushed the automaker to concentrate more strongly on digital marketing, has
been hired by Hyundai as its U.S.
marketing chief.
Hyundai
announced the hiring today, ending a nine-month run without a marketing leader.
The move comes six weeks after Hyundai
wrote a big check to replace General Motors as automotive sponsor of the
National Football League. It's now up to Mr. Evans to help hone Hyundai's
message for that big stage.
Dave
Zuchowski, CEO of Hyundai
Motor America, said the company picked Evans for his broad experience and
inspirational leadership.
"Dean
has a remarkable background, which will prove invaluable to Hyundai as our
company moves forward in the ever-changing auto market," he said in a
statement.
Mr.
Evans was chief marketing
officer at Subaru of America Inc. until spring 2014, when he left to become CEO
of software company LotLinx Inc. His time at Subaru included a TV ad campaign
built around the company's support of charitable causes and one that featured
families of dogs traveling in Subarus and pitched the vehicles as "dog
approved." But Mr. Evans was known as a digital specialist who focused
heavily on online advertising, increasing the share of Subaru's marketing
budget spent on digital to 25% from 15%.
"You
drive more demand with digital," Mr. Evans told Automotive News in a 2013
interview, "and you can record that demand."
Hyundai had been without a
marketing chief since November, when the company parted ways with VP Steve
Shannon. His second-in-command, David Matathia, left Hyundai for a job at an ad
agency in Atlanta earlier this month.
The
company's in-house advertising agency, Innocean Worldwide, also replaced its
U.S. leadership this summer in what sources described as an effort to patch
relations with Hyundai.
Steve
Jun, the CEO of Innocean's European division, was dispatched to lead the U.S.
office, while Tim Blett, a longtime partner at ad agency Doner, was brought
aboard to manage the Hyundai
account.
The
appointment comes at a crucial time for Hyundai, which has been
struggling to come close to the growth rates it enjoyed in 2010 and 2011, owing
to constraints on production capacity, heavier competition and a product lineup
that skews toward cars rather than pickups and crossovers.
Hyundai finished 2014 with a sales
increase of just under 1%, while the overall market grew 5.9%. This year, U.S.
sales through July are up 2.5% in an industry that's up 4.5%.
After
joining Hyundai on Monday,
Aug. 17, Mr. Evans will oversee not only Hyundai's national advertising, but
also its local and regional marketing around the U.S., much of which is funded
jointly by Hyundai Motor America and its dealers.
Mr.
Evans' background in retail will assist him in that role. Earlier in his
career, he worked as a field representative for Chrysler and managed a
Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealership outside San Francisco. He later worked as vice
president of marketing at lead generator Dealix Corp., now owned by Autobytel,
from 2003 to 2006, and as CMO of retail software company Dealer.com from 2007
to 2011.
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