Subaru
National #MakeADogsDay
As a longtime partner of the ASPCA and the car brand with the highest percentage of dog owners, Subaru wanted to do something significant to raise awareness of dog adoption events and to help repay the unconditional love dogs give us all. We began by designating Oct. 22 as a national holiday called “Make a Dog’s Day.” Then we launched work that promoted the adoption of shelter dogs while replacing Subaru’s cars on its homepage with the hardest-to-adopt dogs, the “underdogs,” featured in a national out-of-home campaign. To make the biggest impact possible, we activated with pet adoption events at Subaru retailers and automotive shows across the country.
The sixth year of the campaign is set to launch in the fall of 2024.
Adoption events at Subaru retailers and auto shows have supported the adoption of thousands of animals.
Awards
Best Purpose Driven Launch, Twitter
Media Plan of the Year, Adweek
Best in Auto, The Shorty Social Good Awards
Best Content Marketing: Single Execution, OMMA
Effectiveness
The campaign included a partnership with National Geographic and renowned photographer Vince Musi, who captured the personality of Subaru’s “underdogs” with vivid portraits. Subaru’s 24-hour National Geographic Instagram takeover garnered 4.2 million likes, making it Nat Geo’s most successful partnership of 2019.
The effort also targeted audiences early in the day and included partnerships with Good Morning America and the Today show, first-view placement on Twitter and a promoted #MakeADogsDay hashtag. This fetched 4 million likes, 76,000 mentions of the hashtag and 98% positive sentiment. Half of those mentions referenced Subaru, and the effort helped generate 20,000 searches for “Subaru dogs” on Oct. 22. Meanwhile, a homepage takeover on Amazon was viewed by roughly 80 million customers, leading to $164,000 in donations to the ASPCA on the platform.