Automotive News - February 12, 2018 - v2 - 31

SUBARU OF AMERICA

FEBRUARY 12, 2018 * 31

50 YEARS

Not all of the brand's advertising campaigns have moved the metal,
but the offbeat, underdog messaging nearly always had us laughing

Diana T. Kurylko
autonews@crain.com

key to Subaru of America's decade
of great success has been "Love" -
an advertising campaign that Alan
Bethke, the company's senior
vice president of marketing, says comes in
many forms: "love of the product, love of the
brand and love of what Subaru means."
But before Subaru found "Love," the
company endured nearly 40 years of advertising heartbreak.
Oh sure, Subaru's TV and print ads were
often memorable and fun and groundbreaking in one way or another, but not always successful in carving out a customer
base.
They went from ads mocking its own cars
to celebrity showcases that highlighted
safety and all-wheel drive.
Seven advertising agencies have been involved since 1968, when Subarus went on
sale in this country. The current agency, Carmichael Lynch, launched "Love" in 2008.
Even the brand's proprietors did not
claim to be in love with the first Subaru
sold in the U.S. - a 360 mini launched in
1968 with a two-stroke engine and 66 mpg.
The original ads, the brainchild of cofounder Malcolm Bricklin, touted "Cheap
and Ugly does It."
Priced at $1,297, the 360 was about $400
less than the $1,700 Volkswagen Beetle.

Not a Beetle
In 1970, Subaru hired its
first agency, Green Dolmatch, and began to distance itself from its German
competitor by emphasizing:
"This Subaru is not a Japanese Beetle."
That did little for Subaru
sales and the agency was
fired in 1973. Spiro & Associates of Philadelphia came
on board with ads that hit
on Subarus' durability and
low repair costs. The effort
seemed to work until the
1973-75 U.S. recession crippled auto sales.
The next round of ads, in
1975, were designed by
George Lois and his Lois
Holland Callaway agency.
They sought to tie Japanese
baseball great Masaichi Kaneda to Subaru. Kaneda
was featured in a showroom
with the tag line "Subaru,
the star of Japanese Cars."
The ads were pulled when it
was discovered Kaneda was born to Korean parents, not Japanese. The agency was
canned.
One early approach did work. In 1976,
the DL - available as a sedan, coupe and
wagon - became the official car of the U.S.
ski team, the brand's first important tie-in
with a lifestyle popular among Subaru
owners. The relationship lasted until 1994.
Early ads showed a Subaru wagon emblazoned with a U.S. ski team logo driving uphill on a snowy road. The tag line: "When
the U.S. Ski Team says they are driving a
Subaru, they are not snowing you."
A 1984 TV spot depicted other ski teams
getting stuck in the snow as the U.S. team
whizzed by effortlessly in a Subaru wagon.

Super Bowl flop
In 1993, Subaru ran its first Super Bowl
commercials to help launch the compact
Impreza. The humorless 15-second spots
showed pictures of engines and antilock
brakes. They placed at the bottom of USA
Today's Super Bowl ranking of the game's
TV spots.

THE SELLING
OF SUBARU

Before launching
the "Love"
campaign, left,
in 2008,
Subaru's
advertising
efforts included,
clockwise from
below, a tie-in
with the U.S. ski
team, a plug for
the brand's
traction through
the elements,
and one of the
original ads
that touted
"Cheap and Ugly
does it."

That effort and other blunders by Subaru's agency at the time, Wieden & Kennedy
of Portland, Ore., were detailed in the 1995
book Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and
Death of an Advertising Campaign, by Randall Rothenberg.
Wieden & Kennedy was
fired in 1994 and replaced
by Dallas agency Temerlin
McClain, which held the account until 2005.
In the early 1990s, Subaru's marketing focus turned
to the Outback and allwheel-drive technology with
the "The Beauty of AllWheel Drive" campaign.
Ads, which emphasized that
awd was standard, were the
creative work of Temerlin
McClain. They showed cars
with bicycles and canoes on
roof racks - underscoring
that Subaru owners are active individuals.
"We decided if we wanted
to sell awd, we had to get a
serious understanding of the
best type of customer to target," said former Subaru
marketing chief Tim Mahoney, now Chevrolet's global marketing boss. "It was a
bold move - over 40 percent
of the volume was front-wheel drive."

Lifestyle marketing
By the mid-1990s, Subaru was "targeting
certain consumer/lifestyle segments," Mahoney said.
It was looking to buyers who could afford
more expensive vehicles but liked the incognito design, safety and go-anywhere attributes of the vehicles. To help boost the
effort, in the late 1990s Subaru turned to
celebrities to increase brand awareness. To
pitch the Outback, commercials featured
actor Paul Hogan - the weathered Aussie
bushman in Crocodile Dundee movies. In
2000, commercials with tennis star Martina
Navratilova began running.
Hogan and Navratilova remained spokespeople until 2003 when cycling champion
Lance Armstrong became the face of Subaru advertising with the tag lines "Driven,"
"Tough" and "Muscular."
Awareness increased but the celebrities received more attention than Subaru, said Subaru of America spokesman Michael McHale.
In late 2006, studies showed two-thirds of

Former Subaru marketing boss Tim Mahoney:
"Subaru owners care about their community."

It was Chevy's
Tim Mahoney
who spread the
'Love' at Subaru

Campaign ended up being
cornerstone of turnaround

potential buyers in the U.S. were unaware
of the brand. It was time to move from
highlighting vehicle attributes to emotion.
With Mahoney leading marketing after a
stint at Porsche Cars North America, Subaru hired Carmichael Lynch in late 2007 as
its agency. The "Love" campaign was
launched the next year.
"Love" has tied together the attributes Subaru had been highlighting for decades, including safety and reliability. It became the
umbrella for the brand's advertising, promotions, partnerships, sponsorships, dealer
and corporate websites and charity work.
Advertising Age has called the campaign
"among the most recognizable and enduring marketing efforts in the automobile
category."

Dog lovers
The "Love" campaign also has been
pitched to dog owners because 60 percent
of Subaru owners also have dogs. In 2008,
the brand became a major sponsor of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl, which broadcasts
pups frolicking on a football-like field on
Super Bowl Sunday. The sponsorship has
continued.
Bethke says the Puppy Bowl is an example of Subaru becoming "super targeted."
"We have become more laser - and not
shotgun - focused," he said.
Subaru has also spread the "Love" into its
year-end marketing rather than focusing
on price cuts and rebates.
Every December since 2008, Subaru has
run the "Share the Love" campaign that donates $250 to charities for every car sold. It
has given away more than $120 million in
the past decade.
Says Bethke, "Subaru is the company that
likes to give back." a

Diana T. Kurylko
autonews@crain.com

im Mahoney recalls feeling apprehensive in 2007 as he took the stage at a
Subaru dealer meeting in Salt Lake City
to unveil the brand's "Love" advertising
campaign.
Now Chevrolet's global marketing chief, Mahoney was at the time Subaru of America's vice
president of marketing and the man behind
the "Love" campaign that debuted in 2008
with the launch of the third-generation Forester wagon.
He says he was relieved they didn't boo him
off the stage in Salt Lake City.
"The work was so good they came along for
the ride," said Mahoney, who had been at Subaru from 1984 to 1999 before taking over marketing at Porsche Cars North America. In 2007,
he was a year into his second stint with Subaru.
When he came back he said he found the
brand's marketing was "kind of all over the
place."
Mahoney brought in Carmichael Lynch as
Subaru's advertising agency.
"We were not changing 'It's What Makes a
Subaru a Subaru,' " he said. "But we did need
to answer 'What makes a Subaru a Subaru?' "
Carmichael Lynch interviewed Toyota and
Honda owners, who said what they liked about
their cars was their reliability and durability.
"It was all rational," Mahoney said. "When
they would ask Subaru owners, the first thing
that came out of their mouths is 'I love it.' That
became the germ of the idea of 'Love.' "
When Wall Street tanked in 2008 and auto
sales plummeted, Subaru knew carmakers
would "blow their brains out with December
sales events," he said.
Subaru couldn't afford to compete with dollars but saw "a lot of people were hurting
during that recession," he said. Donations to
charitable organizations such as the American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had dried up.
"We knew Subaru owners care about their
community and giving back," Mahoney said.
"We peeled $250 per car from the incentive
budget and said we will donate."
Subaru buyers could choose from five organizations, and the company would donate
$250 to that group. The "Share the Love," campaign was born.
Mahoney says he still has a warm spot for Subaru - his first employer after graduate school.
"Now I am seven years away and I am happy
to see that work is growing," he said. "They are
still on that same trajectory and the marketing
is good." a

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