Integrated

When Subaru asked us to launch their race-inspired WRX and WRX STI sports cars— definitely the black sheep of the utilitarian Subaru family—they were nervous about a spate of negative rumors surrounding the performance of the new cars. Subaru also didn't feel they could defend the car without seeming both defensive and self-serving. We needed a way to open our target to the truth about the cars. So, rather than a traditional ad campaign, we convinced them to form an entirely new company, DoubleURXXX Productions, that could counter these rumors and be free to create riskier and grittier content that lived outside the typical brand voice and would appeal to our more irreverent, adventurous and aggressive target audience. The Chosen Ones, a 17-minute documentary, and The Ride of Her Life, a long-form movie trailer, were our first productions, and they featured Subarus without being produced by Subaru.

Almost immediately upon our surreptitious introduction of 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 400,000,000 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 model.

Without any advertising, we formed the company, leaked its existence in online forums and let the natural curiosity of our guys guide them to our site, where they saw our irreverent and explosion-filled mission statement. “No way could this come from Subaru” was their verdict. Perfect. We then launched two productions. The first, The Chosen Ones, a 17-minute documentary detailing our subversive competition to find the five most qualified drivers in America who , unbeknownst to them, we would arm with all the facts about the car (and they would then share with the world.) The second, The Ride of Her Life, our grindhouse-inspired exploitation film featuring the three things our target audience loved: hot car, hotter girl and Bucky Lasek.

Our target audience was notoriously counterculture, immune to traditional advertising, and very suspicious and down on corporate America. In addition, they held the incorrect belief that the new model WRX and WRX STI were disappointing, and we were left with a difficult problem both reaching them and getting them to see the light about the new cars, which, by all accounts, were the very best performing models Subaru has ever produced. Our solution was to convince Subaru to launch two major cars without doing any advertising. None. But, rather, create an entirely new company, DoubleURXXX Productions, that could bypass all the walls erected by our target and speak to them so they would listen objectively, embrace and promote. A company that would allow us to create R-rated content much riskier and irreverent than could ever be done under the proper Subaru brand.