Subaru Shifting Direction With DDB, Garfinkel

In 1980, a young copywriter at Levine, Schmidt, Huntley & Beaver wrote a Subaru dealer postcard that declared if the U.S. Mail used the rugged little cars, "this postcard would have arrived sooner."That copywriter, Lee Garfinkel—now chairman and CCO of Omnicom Group's DDB in New York—led the team that last week won the car maker's $165 million creative and media review.But this is not the same Subaru as it was in 1980, and Garfinkel since then has gone on to create ads for other car lines, notably Mercedes-Benz. Subaru's no-matter-what-we'll-get-you-there positioning, upon which the automaker built a small but passionate group of buyers that include nurses and kayakers (and Garfinkel, who still owns a Subaru), is giving way to a more upscale positioning based on performance and styling.The car maker, which is moving into new markets, launching models such as a seven-passenger SUV and introducing European-type styling (its new designer comes from Alfa Romeo), garners more than half of its sales volume from a car with a $30,000-plus price tag: the Legacy sedan. Subaru wants to be the top mass-market brand and take on Lexus and Audi, sources said.That means advertising that pitches performance and "a lot more emphasis on the look and feel [of its vehicles]," said Rick Crosson, vp of marketing at Subaru.Neither Garfinkel nor Crosson would comment on specifics of the winning presentation. Subaru's verbal direction to the four finalists in the creative and media review, however, was to work with its "Think. Feel. Drive" tagline.It was an inclusive brief, said one source, noting that "they wanted a brand campaign, a launch campaign for their new SUV, and how to translate that brand to the products, media plans, interactive—turn the key and start driving."DDB's winning pitch prevailed over Interpublic Group's McCann Erickson and WPP Group's Berlin Cameron/Red Cell, both in New York; and IPG's The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va. The shop is likely to make the case for performance, based at least in part on Subaru's all-wheel-drive capability—what Garfinkel called "a great story to be told."Media will be handled by a new group housed within DDB, Sub- aru Group, which will utilize the resources of the parent company's umbrella media unit, Omnicom Media Group. Sibling media networks OMD and PHD could not pitch the car maker because they handle Nissan and DaimlerChrysler, respectively.Subaru's vehicle line includes entry-level models, hatchbacks, sedans and an SUV; it competes against rivals like the Mazda 3, the Toyota Camry and the Nissan Xterra. But its next big upmarket move will come next year with the launch of a seven-passenger SUV, as yet unnamed, that will be the first to sport Subaru's new styling flair. A newly designed Impreza entry-level model will follow about a year later.

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Subaru Shifting Direction With DDB, Garfinkel

Jack Feuer

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