As a marketer, few campaigns make you stop and say ‘you know what, I WILL click on that ad as a hat tip to you, fellow marketer, because that is a well targeted and a GREAT ad.’
The last ad that elicited that reaction from me was a Subaru ad about city dogs herding sheep that aired almost 6 years ago. I love it because #dogs obvi, but also because these Subaru ads get something *really* right about their customers. And when you can look at an ad and tell who it’s speaking to, presumably because a company has done some good consumer insights, that’s the stuff of magic. Let’s get to it.
Why Cars?
Not likely for a tech marketer to find inspiration in the auto industry, but industries where products are not as differentiated is often where good marketing exists. Think credit cards - fundamentally a similar credit product, yet some credit cards seem like they are so clearly for certain types of people (Sapphire cards for urban diners, Capital One is the reliable card for an unpredictable life, Discover for students). When you can’t just rely on having a better product, must rely on good marketing. Pair the exact same credit card with a Lyft membership, triple the dining points on the Sapphire, make it metal, and bam - you have the millennials credit card. That’s all marketing - understanding the target customer’s wants and needs and building messaging and features around it.
The really ingenious, strategic, 👌insightful and hardworking marketing lives here.
Cars are no exception. Buying a certain type of car says something about you. Toyotas are family cars. BMWs are for those who appreciate driving machines. Lincolns are for if you want to be swanky like Matthew McConaughey. And Subarus…Subarus have established themselves as the car for young-ish urban professionals, who have a dog (or want one), don’t have children (yet), and want to spend more time outdoors.
Enter…My Favorite Subaru Ad
The name of the video is “City dogs try herding sheep for the first time - presented by Buzzfeed and Subaru”. It showed up as a youtube ad, playing before whatever we were watching 6 years ago.
The opening line of the video is a 20-30 something woman saying “look, that’s a sheep! It’s a sheep!” to her dog who is presumably a herding breed but, being a city dog, has never seen sheep before. She sounds excited, and it sounds like they never do this, but she’s got the outdoorsy outfit and the car for it anyways. She and another LA-based couple in the video both own active dogs who make do with their city lives.
I hope this isn’t all the exercise Nadia gets…
After talking about how they work a lot and feel bad for not taking their dogs out more, they embark on a trip to take their dogs to a herding center just outside Los Angeles, where the cityscape is swapped with rolling southern California hills and farmland. “Nadia, we are not in LA anymore.” She looks not sure about not being in LA.
In the next few minutes, the dogs have the time of their lives doing what they were bred to do, and the woman and the couple are overjoyed seeing their dogs fulfill their needs and have a great time.
This woman has never seen her dog see sheep before.
And always in the background… the trusty Subaru that gets you out of the city.
Young Urban Couples Leaving the City to Go Outside
How often these folks actually get out to Yosemite… questionable. At the end of the video, one of the girls says “We’re going to have to make more of an effort to get out here. It’s going to be her annual birthday present.” Annual being the operative word here. They might not actually be outdoorsy people.
Now is also a good time to admit that…I am these people. I am absolutely the person who would see sheep and say “Sheep! Juno those are sheep!.” I’ve climbed half-dome, I’ve backpacked and camped all over, but gone are the days of adventuring freely. It’s been 5 years since our last Tahoe trip. Our packs are in a box in the garage, and I struggle to find the key that unlocks my bike lock to even go for a ride in the city. I even have a herding dog now, who lives in the city and really is more suited for ranch life 🙄 . I might not really be an outdoorsy person anymore either, but the Crosstrek is still on my shortlist.
What makes the Subaru ads so powerful is not that they already ARE outdoorsy people and this is the car for them, it’s that they want to be. It beckons them to a version of their lives they wish were more true, but isn’t because of the confines of a bustling city life. That’s a fundamental truth about human beings that will never go out of date - more to long for. But perhaps more universal than what people desire… is what keeps them from it, and the struggle of wanting both, but only being able to have one.
“Nadia is the best dog. I work a lot, and being on a leash all the time isn’t necessarily what this breed is best at.”
And here the Subaru positioning lives - transporting us physically and emotionally to what we long to be able to have, but that our busy lives keep us from. Quickly, it becomes more than getting outside with your dog, but also about…
It’s not just physical space that city life confines.
The Insight
So, where Lincoln goes for folks who want to be swanky like Matthew McConaghey. I think Subaru’s people can be described like this:
Urban dwellers, single, unmarried, or partnered up but without children. Dog-adjacent (so not necessarily dog owners, but thinking about it and have an affinity towards dogs)
Who are clearly city people and like their city lives and careers
But also feel the confines of that life - too busy to live the outdoors, too busy to see grandma, too busy to fulfill their dog’s happiness, too city to move freely, too established to adventure
For whom owning a Subaru is one step closer to having the best of both worlds
Because they don’t want to be boxed in, and long for more in their lives beyond what a city lifestyle affords them.
And every Subaru ad you see hammers home the point - Subaru can be that car for you. You can park me in the city, and I'm perfect for an occasional weekend trip to get out and do more, and you can finally do the stuff you never feel like you do enough of - I can be that car for you.
This could have gone very differently.
Imagine for a second that Subaru missed a few nuances, and stopped here:
Urban dwellers who feel the confines of city life, feel boxed in, and long to be outdoors.
An ad based on that insight might have featured a young adult choosing to freelance and backpack across the US for 4 months at a time. They could have positioned Subaru as the ultimate outdoor car that will get you to the outdoors for you to live out your outdoor dreams.
Except the Subaru customer doesn’t want to not be a city person - they like their city lives. They don’t want a different life entirely - they just want to see grandma more, get out every now and again, and they like the idea of a car that lives in the city as well as it handles a road trip.
If they never got to the insight about wanting both, we never would have been graced with the image of awkward city-folk not knowing what to do with sheep their dogs herded over to them.
I could tell you that Subaru’s market share in North America has grown 4x in the last 2 decades, but you could also just look down the street in the city and see Crosstreks, Outbacks, and Imprezas parked and ready to whisk their owners away for the weekend. They’re everywhere.
I’ll leave you with a game I like to play.
I like to see an ad and name the friend it’s for. It’s a good litmus test for how well a company *get’s it*. Do they have a clear idea of who they’re going after, and what makes them tick? And how well did they bring it to life? It’s also hilarious to see the ads that are clearly not meant for you (usually because you don’t understand the ad at all and it means nothing to you). But it should be for somebody. If seeing an ad doesn’t bring someone specific to mind - its either far too out of your demographic (e.g. I’ve given up on understanding TikTok), or the positioning is not working hard.
So! Here are a few clips of ads for OTHER subcompact crossover SUVs with varying degrees of outdoorsiness... and our reactions. Who comes to mind? Have fun :)
Mini Cooper Countryman
Ben - Why are they in the desert? 😂 This is not for Ben.
Subaru Crosstrek
This is my jam.
Kia EV6
I honestly don't understand.
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