Wagner Subaru

A milestone anniversary

Wagner Subaru has been serving the Miami Valley since 1971, only three years after the first Subaru was imported into the country. For their 50th anniversary, they partnered with us to  create a mini-documentary that celebrated their legacy and helped them reach new audiences.

A 3rd-generation family business

Wagner has never used the loud-talking, cheesy commercials most people associate with car dealerships, because they don’t reflect the real passion for serving customers shared by everyone on their team.

As a company that builds long-term relationships with many of their customers, they have an enthusiastic local fanbase. Because they’d been our client for almost five years, we had a lot of footage from other projects, and we knew their audience appreciated videos focused on the real people behind the brand.

Capturing footage during a pandemic 

To show the history of the dealership and highlight the family’s legacy, it was important to include as many family members as possible. But because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19, the wife of the late founder wasn’t comfortable having a film crew in her home. 

For this project, we equipped a family member with an audio recorder to capture an interview. By using her as the narrator for most of the archival footage included in the film, we found a way to respect her boundaries but still include one of the original voices of the brand.

Working as an extension of the Wagner team

While our team is known for making people feel comfortable in front of the camera, we recognize that a full film crew just isn’t appropriate for every situation. Our first goal is to tell the best story possible, and we’re happy to work with customers to capture their own audio and video assets when that’s the only way to meet budgetary constraints or to overcome a safety issue.

Like other behind-the-scenes videos we’ve done with Wagner, the authentic elements of this campaign struck a chord with their loyal fanbase, who shared it dozens of times on social media — helping them reach new audiences in the most organic way possible.