Told ya! Following a Reuters report earlier today that revealed Facebook had actually encouraged General Motors to utilize the website’s free pages, thus lessening the import of GM’s announcement from earlier this week about no longer paying for Facebook ads. Now, someone from the Wall Street Journal has revealed that GM won’t be advertising at the next Super Bowl, either.
Suzanne Vranica, an advertising and marketing reporter at the Journal, tweeted the news:
Follow @VranicaWSJ 
VranicaWSJ
@VranicaWSJ WSJ :GM to sits out Super Bowl w/@sharonterlep
According to the accompanying report, GM’s global marketing chief, Joel Ewanick, the same guy on Tuesday that said paid ads on Facebook don’t work (in so many words), has concluded that buying ads during the Super Bowl is too expensive to justify the cost.
Given that GM’s the third largest advertiser during Super Bowls, today’s decision helps defuse any of the controversy that got blown up after the company decided it would no longer pay for ads on Facebook (GM’s still dedicating $30 million to using Facebook’s free services).
All of this advertising reshuffling by GM is due to the company’s effort to optimize its advertising strategy and get the most out of its ad budget. And while this Facebook/GM story is starting to sound like it’s going to go out with a whimper, GM’s timing to announce its withdrawal from paid Facebook ads only a few days before Facebook’s IPO remains a little suspect.