Mitsubishi Motors Canada’s status as one of the first brands to work with Reddit in Canada seems to have paid off, helping get a new model of a flagship SUV in front of people who might not have otherwise seen it.

The automaker turned to the social platform to help it reach new audiences that represented untapped opportunities. The result was that 99% of the traffic driven by Reddit during the course of the campaign came from users who had never visited the Mitsubishi site before. Compared to other social platforms, Reddit offered Mitsubishi between 20% and 50% unduplicated audience, depending on the website.

“We saw an opportunity to engage with specific audiences that we struggle to reach on other platforms,” says Mike Zablocki, digital marketing manager for Mitsubishi Motors Canada. “Launching the campaign was very smooth, especially considering we were one of the first advertisers to launch in Canada.”

Reddit launched a dedicated office in Canada in the spring to, in part, have a more direct relationship with advertisers and develop custom opportunities. Mitsubishi was one of the first on board.

Along with agency partner Jan Kelley, the automaker and Reddit developed a campaign to raise awareness and build brand affinity ahead of the launch of the Outlander SUV throughout the month of June. The ads targeted the highly engaged and passionate audiences that gather around specific interests on Reddit.

Recent research undertaken by Reddit and Verto Analytics indicated that online communities are an integral part of the ecommerce mix and a valuable part of the path to purchase, especially in the research phase. Reddit users spend four times more of their purchase journey actively researching and consider twice the number of brands during these discovery sessions.

But the targeting approach also reached outside of auto enthusiasts, finding audiences that aligned with the Outlander in tech and entertainment communities on Reddit with creative reflecting the tone and style of conversations within the site’s communities. Specifically, it referenced an outsider attitude, with messaging referencing being on top of what’s new, next and different – both in automotive and culture.

Marketing for the 2022 Outlander more broadly has positioned the SUV as bold, tech-forward choice: it was debuted globally earlier this year via an Amazon Live streaming event, and ad creative has focused on the range of tech features include in the vehicle.

Through Auction and Category Takeovers featuring promoted videos, the campaign exceeded benchmark clickthrough rates (CTRs) and achieved 62% greater reach per dollar compared to other social channels.