SUV Plan Crucial In Subaru Review

Subaru of America will pick a winner in its $165 million media and creative review based on which of the four finalists can craft a launch plan for a 2006 sport utility vehicle that takes the nameplate up the car-buyer economic scale without sacrificing the brand’s “anti-status” core values, sources said.

Executives at the four agencies—Interpublic Group’s The Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.; the New York office of IPG’s McCann-Erickson; Omnicom Group’s DDB; and WPP Group’s Berlin Cameron/ Red Cell—were briefed simultaneously last Wednesday at the client’s Cherry Hill, N.J.,