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General Motors Co has slashed its sponsorship budget by 60 per cent since filing for bankruptcy last year.

Reuters quotes GM's general director of marketing services Steve Tihanyi, who is responsible for sports sponsorships, as saying: "Pre-bankruptcy to post-bankruptcy in the area of sponsorships and promotions, we eliminated about 60 per cent of [the cost of] what we had.

"I don't think you'll see us doing eight or nine mega-rights deals any longer. We think we can spend the money a little more effectively and ultimately get more bang for our buck."

GM filed for bankruptcy in June 2009 and emerged a month later after taking a total of $50bn in funding from the US government, which owns a 61 per cent stake in the company.

From 2006 to 2008, GM spent about $230m to $250m on sponsorships, with about half that in NASCAR auto racing and other motorsports, according to sponsorship research firm Navigate.

While it was in bankruptcy, GM exited many sponsorship deals. Over the last two years, the company has walked away from deals with golfer Tiger Woods and several PGA Tour golf tournaments, NASCAR race tracks and teams, the US Olympic Committee, the NCAA and the WNBA. Tihanyi called it starting with "a clean sheet of paper”.

GM still has sizeable deals with the National Football League and Major League Baseball, as well as many individual sports teams.

Earlier this year, GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz said Woods did little to help sell Buick cars, for which GM paid him an estimated $8m annually before ending the deal a year early in late 2008. Lutz has also previously questioned the impact of NASCAR.

Tihanyi believes it is critical for GM to be clear about how it positions its four remaining brands: Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC.

"Take the NFL – we used to have Hummer as part of draft day, Cadillac did Super Bowl, we had GMC positioned as the regular season [brand]," he added. "The consumer wasn't getting who's associated with what, so we kind of cleaned that up and we've made GMC our NFL brand."