In the U.S., branded content is growing stronger each year, but for major brands the 30-second commercial is still king. However, when it comes to advertising automobiles in particular, broadcast television has in place many arbitrary and arcane rules about what you can and cannot show. No speeding, no aggressive driving, and certainly no jumping through fire and billboards. We solved this problem, as well as our target’s immunity to marketing and general distrust of corporate messaging, through our branded content digital approach, which allowed them to discover the content themselves and share it.

WRX and WRX STI fans live in their own special ecosystem. Like the car itself, they are outsiders to the rest of the utilitarian Subaru crowd. These are visceral guys who get their hands dirty, love modifying their cars, play Need for Speed and watch the Fast and the Furious movies. To reach them, we had to earn their attention. We did this by creating DoubleURXXX Productions, an entirely new company that could make gritty and risky things our guys sought out, could live outside the brand voice (and restrictions) of Subaru, and was decidedly “uncorporate.”

Almost immediately upon our surreptitiously introducing the company in online forums, the conversation changed from the new models being a disappointment, to speculation about what the heck DoubleURXXX Productions was. This new company allowed us to reach the skeptics and deliver the message about how great the car was without them feeling they were being marketed to. The Chosen Ones earned us entry and proved how incredible the new WRX was, and The Ride of Her Life reminded them how fun and furious driving them can be. In total, the productions earned over 500,000,000 earned impressions and millions of YouTube hits. But, most impressive of all, the work led to the most successful WRX and WRX STI launches in Subaru’s history, with sales up more than 400% over the last models.