Subaru wants you!

Faced with only a trickle of upcoming new model launches, Subaru is turning to a social media campaign to grow buyer interest in the brand beyond its ‘rusted-on’ fans.

Dubbed #OneLittleMoment, it piggybacks on the launch of the new Forester medium SUV and is the latest iteration of its ‘Subaru do’ program.

The campaign, which launches overnight tonight (September 10), encourages “all Australia” to capture a moment of their day and share it on social media using the #OneLittleMoment hashtag.

“Ultimately it’s about redefining our brand and recommunicating our brand,” said Subaru Australia managing director Colin Christie.

Primarily aimed at the young families that are a big Forester buying audience, it won’t have strong Subaru branding and will be allowed to thrive or wilt depending on how it is embraced.

“That [#OneLittleMoment] will grow and develop as it needs to and if it is good idea it will grow well and if it is not a good idea it won’t grow well,” said Christie.

‘Subaru do’ already includes innovative customer activities such as pop-up showrooms, mobile test drives, shopping centre servicing and buying online, but Christie said the social media campaign was about creating an “emotional connection”.

“We have specific products in the range, we have a very loyal customer base and when customers look at us we have a very strong conversion rate,” Christie said.

“But ultimately a lot of people don’t consider us and that could be due to our product range and a whole series of factors.

“So this is about building the brand rather than the product. The product is critically important, but you want people to think about Subaru as a brand and Subaru as a brand they can relate to.”

Christies said Subaru has a rational, practical and high quality reputation. It has a high buyer retention rate of around 40 per cent.

The brand has been on a consistent path of growth for years in Australia and posted a record 52,511 sales in 2017.

It’s local market share of 4.3 per cent is the highest for Subaru in the world and only the US, Japan and Canada have higher sales volumes.

But sales have drifted down 1.8 per cent in 2018 and Subaru has slipped out of the list of top 10 brands by sales. Forester is its one significant new model launch in 2018 and there isn’t a whole lot more coming before the end of the decade.

Frustratingly for Christie and his crew, there is no chance to gain access to the US-built left-hand drive Ascent seven-seat SUV and there seems no interest at Subaru HQ in Japan in attacking the booming ute market.

“Yes, we do have a restricted product range but there is plenty of growth in that product range,” insisted Christie. “It’s just about getting our message out to plenty of people and getting them to see Subaru as a product they can relate to.

“I think most people have heard of Subaru but I think the reality is when they are looking for a car our consideration wouldn’t be anywhere as high as Toyota is for instance.”

Christie estimated the combined Forester/OneLittleMoment spend was one of the largest in Subaru’s Australian history.

“The one little moment movement won’t be a heavily branded Subaru thing,” said Christie. “Yes, it is in our ads and yes there will be things if you want to go and search for them.

“But we won’t be having ‘Subaru’s one little moment’ or pushing everywhere you go so if you engage you suddenly get a lot of Subaru information.

“It’s not about that. We believe it’s actually an important thing to do and by nature of that we will get the benefit of that.”