The Campaign

SUBARU tried to convey their philosophy to a wider target audience, which SUBARU makes cars by thinking deeply of people, and their individual stories. We launched a boundary-breaking branded entertainment campaign called “Your story with” aiming to create the I.P. (intellectual properties) which SUBARU owns and enterain audience at the same time.

Creative Execution

We create a 90 seconds commercial slot during one of the most popular prime-time-TV-shows and produce story-driven long-form commercials to tell stories of drivers and their families. The series became so popular and continued over 7 years with 16 episodes. New Challenge and Idea: In 2017, we decided to break the boundary again between advertising and regular entertainment by creating two 30-minutes TV drama based on the 90 seconds TV commercial series, with the request of a Japanese major TV network who wanted to leverage the popularity of the commercial series. In 2018, the series picked up by a major publishhing-house to be adapted into a novel. The project is a well-integrated branded entertainment and regular entertainment (TV Drama and Novel) as it is completely diîerent from simple product placement as the car itself plays an important role so the audience can relate to the car as a character.

Impact has been huge over 7-years. 90-seconds TV spot “Your story with” series: 16-episodes of TV commercials, viewed a total of more than 10 billion on TV over 7-years. The ïrst episode, “D.N.A.” made a huge buzz globally. It gained more than 5 million views with thousands of compliments in Japan, the U.S., Russia, and China. The online edition of 16-episodes TV spot has been viewed more than 8 million times along with 15000+ likes and 5000+ positive comments. Total of 50,000+ positive tweets on the entire series. TV Drama ”Lighthouse” and"MyLife-MyRoad" based on Your story with: 1 million+ views on TV. 100,000+views on the internet in just a few days Officially selected by several film festivals as a short film. Made a Twitter Trending Topic. Novel “Your story with”: The very first case of novelization of TV commercials. Result: SUBARU became the most relatable Japanese car brand in 2017.

It is easy to create Branded-Entertainment on the web. But it's rare to make an impact without collaborating trustworthy media-partners which have power-of-engagement. We carefully worked with media since the launch of this wholistic media/branded entertainment campaign, SUBARU Your story with, by creating 90 seconds long TV spot space during the prime time show instead of web-movies campaign. We worked with TV network to create regular TV dramas based on the SUBARU Your story with commercials. And we worked with a major-publisher to novelize the TV commercials. The project became brand owned IP by Media empowered Branded Entertainment project.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We wanted to make sure that the audience enjoys their investment of their time and SUBARU effectively convey their philosophy with the following strategies. 1 Creating the "platform" lasting longtime instead of "campaign approach" to make the project asset and I.P. by creating a continuous 120 seconds commercial spaces during one of the most popular prime time TV shows by negotiating major network. 2 Securing regular entertainment distribution channels including nation-wide TV drama slot and ïlm festival-circuit, and novelization by a major publisher. 3 Creating the TV spots and dramas plot by making sure that SUBARU car plays an important character to move the story forward rather than simple product placement. 4 Utilizing regular entertainment’s storytelling methods including 3-act with emotional pay-oîs, a visual story without relying on dialogue, relatable character’s growth and insightful theme.