Subaru Launches New Campaign To STi-mulate Performance Car Buyers

Subaru is gearing up to launch a new advertising and marketing communications campaign - ‘Ultimate STimulation’ - for its mighty new Impreza WRX STi Type UK, targeting performance car buyers.

Subaru gave England its first ever World Rally Champion in 2001 when Richard Burns lifted the title in his Impreza World Rally Car. In engineering terms, the Impreza WRX STi is Subaru’s closest road-going car yet to the World Rally Car.

Ultimate STimulation gets the green light in February when a series of double page ads will hit the UK’s motoring press, together with a competition to win a drive day with Top Gear Magazine.

Press ads will be supported by a national radio competition on Talksport 1089/1053am, in which contestants answer questions on STimulating performances. The ultimate winner will win a trip to the Cyprus round of the World Rally Championship with Subaru’s World Rally Team.

Furthermore, a new 10-second ident has been created for Subaru’s existing sponsorship of Sky News Sportsline. It will be shown four-times-a-day seven-days-a-week, significantly increasing STi exposure without increasing media spend.

Subaru (UK) Limited Marketing Director, Jon Nealon, said: "This is one of the most important and exciting car launches in our history and we have had to out-think and out-gun the major players, both creatively and in media terms. The impact of our targeted media approach will do just that.

"STi is the Subaru equivalent of BMW M-Sport, thus the correct positioning with car enthusiasts is crucial to the car’s success. ‘Ultimate STimulation’ was chosen as a theme to get across the Subaru ‘driver’s car’ philosophy."

Subaru’s media is planned and booked by Feather Brooksbank, of Manchester, while the creative was developed by the brand’s long-standing Birmingham-based advertising agency, WT.