Subaru Canada is telling tall tales to make buying a new Crosstrek an even more enticing proposition.

The “True Urban Legend” campaign focuses on people from all walks of life relaying apocryphal rumblings about what the latest Crosstrek model is all about, like that it “wanders the streets at night in search of food.”

According to the brand, it’s a fun way to position the outdoorsy-yet-urban subcompact crossover as a larger-than-life and almost mythical vehicle. It is also meant to help the Crosstrek stand out against the likes of Honda HR-V and Mazda CX urban compact vehicles.

Subaru’s director of marketing and brand management, Gary Sappleton, tells strategy that to highlight the Crosstrek’s versatile features, it needed to find a bold, creative way to draw people in and entertain them while showing why the Crosstrek is a perfect adventure ride for both inside and outside the city.

“Our goal was to find uncommon ways to stand out and be memorable in the crowded subcompact segment: rather than list features or use people as stylized props, we wanted to tell insightful stories, connect with the audience on an emotional level and go against the segment norms,” Sappleton says.

In April, at the New York Auto Show, Subaru revealed its 2024 Crosstrek Wilderness, a more off-road version of the Crosstrek, and third vehicle to be launched under the automaker’s “Wilderness” brand.

“The Crosstrek is our highest sales volume vehicle, and the 2024 model year is all-new, undergoing a full model change,” he says. “Launching now puts us in a great position to create a buzz and build momentum during the spring season.” Subaru is also prioritizing mass awareness with a media invested in TV as well as OLV, with OOH and digital rounding out the buy.

Zulu Alpha Kilo led the strategy and creative development, Agence Rinaldi handled Quebec market creative and OMD was behind the media planning and buying.

Quebec is a key market for the campaign, Sappleton says, as the region leans towards compacts and sub-compacts. Also, this past month, Sappleton says Crosstrek sales in Quebec actually outpaced Crosstrek sales in the larger Ontario market, so its clear to that the Quebec market has an affinity for Subaru as a trusted brand.

“For this campaign we made an effort to double-shoot [in French] so we were able to dial up the story telling, intrigue and humour in both official languages,” he says.