Web-heavy campaign will emphasize issues restructuring auto giant faces in next century.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News

General Motors Corp. will launch a massive, year-long blitz of marketing and special events to mark 100 years in existence.

But the fete won’t include a commemorative book or even much nostalgia on the popular cars of yesterday.

Instead GM, in the midst of a wrenching transformation, intends to leverage the milestone as a way to promote the company and focus more on future goals than times past. The largest U.S. automaker officially turns 100 on Sept. 16.

The centerpiece of GM’s celebration will be a massive cyber effort, called GMnext. The automaker’s top executives kicked off the celebration Thursday with an online chat.

"We’re starting our second century at a time of fundamental change in the auto industry," said GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner in a statement.

"We’ll use GMnext to introduce some of our ideas for addressing critical issues concerning energy, the environment and globalization. In the process, we also hope to spark a broader, global discussion on these important topics."

Among the plans for the year: a Wikipedia-like Web site where employees and the public can trace GM’s history and regular Web chats between the public and up-and-coming executives.

All can be found at the automaker’s newly created Web site, GMnext.com.

Throughout the year GM will hold events — in cyberspace and real life — to show off new technologies and get people talking about the automaker, its products and the future.

GM will cater to car enthusiasts by giving them enhanced access to auto shows, then asking them to blog about their experience online.

The automaker will court young consumers by expanding its presence online and sponsoring rock festivals in key growth markets.

GM also is beginning to set plans to celebrate its actual birthday on Sept. 16. GM will hold events around the world, with the main celebration at its world headquarters in Detroit.

There also will be a one-hour live broadcast in which GM CEO Rick Wagoner will discuss the company’s 2008 collection of concept vehicles.

GM marks as its founding the day in 1908 that William Durant, owner of Flint’s Buick Motor Co., began the car company that would become today’s General Motors Corp.

The last century has seen a host of innovative new technologies, historic labor strife and growing competition from foreign rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp.

By the 1970s nearly one of every two vehicles sold in the United States was made by GM. The company sold 7.1 million cars and trucks in 1978, its peak year. Sales in 2007 were nearly half that, at 3.8 million.

GM’s anniversary plans are a departure from Ford Motor Co.’s centennial celebration in 2003, a milestone that was steeped in the Dearborn automaker’s rich heritage.

"Given the state of the industry right now and all the pressure the industry is under, the approach GM is taking makes a tremendous amount of sense," said Joseph Phillippi of AutoTrends Consulting in Short Hills, N.J.

"Talking about where we are today in this world and what they’re going to do with their technology going forward — that’s clearly going to be critical in terms of keeping the Big Three viable in the future."