Tim Letscher

Subaru: Dog Tested Mobile

Challenge

For the past 2 years, “Dog Tested” has successfully engaged experience seekers in an emotional way with a lot of brand personality. It works to pulse one of Subaru’s core passion pillars by emphasizing the human factor in dogs to create an emotional response.

With year three, how can Subaru continue to engage Experience Seekers and position Subaru as a brand for dog lovers, while deepening interaction with the brand?

Insight/Solution

While the Dog Tested campaign had many traditional campaign elements, to stand out in a crowded automotive field, Subaru had to innovate by providing tools to inspire storytelling and sharing to strengthen brand affinity that extended well past the life cycle of the traditional campaign.

We partnered with MapMyFitness to create the Subaru MapMyDogwalk. By integrating the Subaru brand into a healthy, daily and social activity we were exposing the brand to users’ friends with every Facebook post or Tweet. The brand became an API.

Results

• The app received the highest rating (5 stars) in the iTunes store from 75% of the reviewers, with another 18% giving it 4 stars.
• Over 60,000 downloads which spiked around launch date 1/20 and remained stable through most of campaign, spiking again around Westminster dog show. Notably, daily downloads have averaged almost 300/day following the campaign conclusion.
• In-app Subaru mobile banners CTR was 0.92% compared to MapMy apps’ average CTRs from 0.30% to 0.50%
• Subaru interstitial banner CTR was 8.64% compared to MayMy apps’ average CTRs from 1% to 5%

Klout Perk: Subaru Dog Tested

CHALLENGE

For the past 2 years, “Dog Tested” has successfully engaged experience seekers in an emotional way with a lot of brand personality. It works to pulse one of Subaru’s core passion pillars by emphasizing the human factor in dogs to create an emotional response.

How could Subaru reach dog lovers through a less traditional, more social channel?

INSIGHT/SOLUTION

By partnering with Klout, the standard for measuring online influence, we could identify dog and pet lovers who had a strong propensity to be vocal on their social networks like Facebook and Twitter. We offered a free custom Subaru dog blanket to the first 600 participants to claim the perk.

RESULTS

• Demand for this KloutPerk was extremely high and the limit was reached in less than 24 hours
• Through these 600 influencers, the campaign generated 5.5MM impressions, efficiently reaching a highly targeted, actively engaged audience.
• Klout influencers engaged beyond the perks page with 70% visiting Subaru’s Dog Tested Facebook page.

Subaru: Share The Love Voting

Challenge

How to grow the Subaru community on Facebook avoiding tactics that merely gain a “like” without true engagement?

Insight/Solution

Looking at the activity on Facebook for 2010, I identified engagement spikes that coincided with brand campaigns.

Focusing on one campaign, the Subaru Share The Love sales event, I developed a strategy for a program that did more than just push out content. Share the Love is an annual program during the holidays where Subaru donates money to the charity of your choice when you purchase a car.

For 2011, it made sense to involve the Facebook community, giving them the exclusive opportunity to choose one of the five charities. The naturally shared content was augmented by a Facebook media campaign featuring sponsored stories so friends would see their friends voting and liking Subaru.

Results

• Facebook community more than doubled during the campaign, exceeding the client’s goal
• Subaru’s wall post activity on Facebook increased from 7 per day to 122 per day during campaign
• Potential reach from earned media via personal recommendations across Facebook exceeded 15 Million impressions

CITGO: Fueling Good

CHALLENGE

In 2009, CITGO, a major refiner and marketer of transportation fuels, launched the Fueling Good rewards program as an antidote to a negatively charged sentiment toward the brand. 

Fueling Good rewards community-based charities with donations of gasoline to help them fulfill their good works. Even though twelve winners receive $5,000 worth of gas during each program period, CITGO had a problem attracting qualified entrants and generating word-of-mouth.

We took over the foundering program in late 2010 with two clear objectives: Grow awareness of Fueling Good among key stakeholders and double the non-profit participation in the program.

INSIGHT/SOLUTION

We knew it would be critical to develop tactics that would promote a high level of engagement from beneficiaries, supporters and charities to increase program awareness and grow fans; to speak through the charities.

Recognizing that Facebook offered the most opportunity to reenergize the Fueling Good social presence, we sought to engage charitable partners and their audiences where we could have the richest engagement, inspiring them with an anthem video and arming them with a digital toolkit to help them spread the word.

To complement earned social efforts and increase engagement, the agency team also developed Facebook ads targeting individuals who reside in one of CITGO’s 27 markets and listing related interests, job-related interests or like-minded affiliations.

RESULTS

• Drove over 280,000 unique visits to FuelingGood.com during the 3-month voting period.
• Doubled online positive sentiment
• Doubled size of community on FuelingGood Facebook page
• Over 1,700 charity entries more than tripled number of entries of previous years combined.
• 264,000 votes cast during voting period.