In Australia, we take rescuing seriously. We have rescue services to save swimmers from strong currents, boats from wild seas and walkers from desolate bushland. We even rescue people from deadly wildlife attacks, and when the rescuers get in trouble they get rescued! But recently we noticed a group of Australians who needed to be saved from an even deadlier environment…work! With this insight in mind, we launched a rescue service of our very own, with the all-new Subaru Impreza XV at its heart. A Subaru funded public service dedicated to rescuing Australians from their mind-numbing workplaces and reconnecting them with their birthright-the great outdoors. To do this, we engaged our audience with a community based campaign devised to reach them whilst at work, and we offered them the chance to escape their hum-drum existence by giving them the opportunity to live the life their Australian maverick heroes had chosen.

With the SUBARU XV at its heart, we launched XV Rescue; a SUBARU funded Public Service dedicated to saving Australians from the daily grind. We created a community-based campaign that recognised the symptoms of an overworked nation. Rich media banners, along with national radio enabled us to reach out to deskbound office workers and those stuck in factories and the service industry. We opened xv rescue.com, our unique online emergency centre designed to offer assistance and a diagnosis to those who could no longer cope. We even delivered a full appraisal of their lack-lustre lives by analyzing their Facebook content. Those in dire need were whisked away in the SUBARU XV and handed over to a team of celebrities for a life changing experience designed to reconnect them with a world they’d long forgotten. Each experience was turned into online episodes to connect with a broader audience.

For the first time, Subaru Australia leveraged multiple social media channels to create widespread online dialogue around a new product launch. Close to 7,000 unique users interacted with our online tool for an average of 3.10 mins. Within 8 weeks Subaru had sold all Subaru XV’s. Their sales target had been achieved in a quarter of the time projected, what’s more, they’d established a significant foothold in a market segment they had previously not occupied- Crossover vehicles. More importantly, Subaru had begun a conversation with a target audience they’d never previously appealed to.