Gallaraga's $53K Corvette worth $9M to GM

The move may have gotten politician Darrell Issa's undies in a bunch, but he's wrong. General Motors moved with speed and decisiveness when a bad call blew what would have been a perfect game for Armando Galarraga, pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. It's true that General Motors missed out on $53,000 by just handing a Chevrolet Corvette convertible over to the thwarted baseballer, but the company knew it was getting a screaming bargain in exchange for the car.

$53,000 buys a modest print run and an even more modest TV campaign. On the other hand, according to Joyce Julis & Associates, a Michigan-based firm that measures the reach of sponsorships, GM also received the equivalent of $9 million in media coverage thanks to every media outlet clamoring to cover the story. That, friends, is bounce, and when you're in business to sell cars, it's priceless. It's a stunt, sure, a well-calculated one that turned out to be wildly successful. Rep. Issa doesn't have to like it, but the people in the business of selling cars likely love the bang they got for their buck.

[Source: Crain's Detroit Business]