General Motors is working to remake its public image with a new logo, a new company-wide marketing campaign and a new website as it shifts from a company that makes largely internal combustion vehicles to offering mostly all-electric vehicles over the next decade.
On Friday, GM said starting Monday it will debut the campaign to promote mass adoption of EVs called “Everybody In.” The company will replace its familiar blue square logo and will launch a new GM.com website to share the latest information about work in electrification and self-driving cars.
The “Everybody In” campaign, which starts running digitally this month, will feature media influencers to help introduce a new generation of buyers to EVs. Likewise, designers have created a new logo using a color gradient of vibrant blue tones to represent the cleaner skies of a zero-emissions future.
“There are moments in history when everything changes. Inflection points. We believe such a point is upon us for the mass adoption of electric vehicles,” said Deborah Wahl, GM global chief marketing officer.
Wahl said GM’s investment and technology in EVs has created the scale to put “everyone in an EV.”
“Our new brand identity and campaign are designed to reflect this,” she said. ” ‘Everybody In’ demonstrates our intent to lead, while inviting others — policy makers, partners, individuals — to play an active role … whether that’s helping to expand infrastructure, advocating for progress in their communities or simply taking an EV for a test drive.”
Generation E
GM has touted its transformation to EVs and self-driving cars for years, saying it seeks a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.
Last fall, GM CEO Mary Barra told Wall Street the company has invested $27 billion in EV and AV products through 2025 and will launch 30 new EVs globally by the end of 2025. Previously, GM had said it would bring 20 new EVs to market by 2023.
The “Everybody In” campaign is intended to excite a new generation of buyers and challenge the perception of EVs by highlighting the range, performance and flexibility of GM’s Ultium battery platform.
Ultium will power nearly all of GM’s future EV lineup from mass-market to high-performance vehicles, including the 2022 GMC Hummer pickup due out late this year and the Cadillac Lyriq SUV due out early next year.
Ultium will allow EVs to go up to 450 miles on a full charge and it will power EVs of many sizes, shapes and price points. It is capable of 0-60 mph performance in 3 seconds on some models.
The “Everybody In” campaign is currently focused solely on the United States and it will be “significant” in terms of its placement in the media, but Wahl declined to say how much GM is spending on it.
To promote the electric vehicles, GM will feature various influencers throughout the campaign, including:
- Malcolm Gladwell, author of “The Tipping Point.”
- Bethany Hamilton, professional surfer and shark attack survivor.
- Cody Rigsby, fitness instructor.
- Erin A. Simon, a gamer.
The influencers appear in the spots challenging people to accept change and call those who embrace EVs as “Generation E.”
“Our EV future is inclusive of all different walks of people,” Wahl said.
A new logo
The new logo is meant to be a modernized version of GM’s trademark blue square, while still giving a nod to GM’s heritage.
This is only the fifth logo change in 113 years, Wahl said. The last time GM changed its logo was in 1964.
GM said the new identity extends to its technology “brands,” such as its proprietary Ultium system.
“The new brand is optimistic and vibrant,” Wahl said. “This new look will roll quickly across our new materials and facilities during 2021.”
The new logo features a color gradient of vibrant blue tones, meant to evoke the cleaner skies a zero-emissions future will bring as well as reflect the Ultium platform. The rounded edges and lowercase font create a modern and inclusive feel, GM described in a release.
“The underline of the ‘m’ connects to the previous GM logos as well as visually representing the Ultium platform. And within the negative space of the ‘m’ is a nod to the shape of an electrical plug,” a GM release said.
“This was a project our team took so personally, not just for ourselves but for the 164,000 employees this logo represents,” said Sharon Gauci, GM executive director of Global Industrial Design. “At every step we wanted to be intentional and deliberate because this logo signifies creative and innovative thinking across the global General Motors family.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.