Subaru partnership recognised

Twenty-two years of a successful New Zealand partnership between Subaru of New Zealand and Barnes Catmur & Friends Dentsu (BCFD) have been recognised as the best Agency-Marketer partnership in the Asia Pacific region.

The gold award was made at a presentation yesterday in Singapore by Campaign Asia.

In 1996, Subaru of New Zealand managing director Wallis Dumper and Daniel Barnes, of what was then Barnes Advertising, came together to work on turning around the fortunes of Subaru in New Zealand.

That partnership has continued ever since.

It is a great example of the long-term thinking that both organisations and their agencies pride themselves on.

Today, Subaru and their advertising agency BCFD still work closely on a weekly basis and they continue to view most business problems first through a marketing lens.

The hard work has paid off and has seen New Zealand claiming one of the highest proportions of Subaru owners per capita, worldwide.

“Part of our marketing ethos has been to dare to be different and way back in 1996 when we chose to partner with Daniel Barnes we were doing just that," said Dumper. "We have never been scared of making hard decisions, such as going 100 per cent All Wheel Drive, or losing our top selling Legacy Wagon model, which in turn, trebled sales of our Outback model."

"This award is for all of those people both past and present who have worked on the Subaru brand in New Zealand, whether for our company or BCFD, and most importantly it is for today’s team - led by the Subaru Marketing Manager Daile Stephens - who continue to be excellent at what they do.”