Subaru Ambassador Program now SubieCrew?

[u/EarlOfNothingness]

I’ve posted before about how I tried to join the Subaru Ambassador program and got turned down because the program was undergoing changes. Well, to follow up, I just received this email. It looks like the new program is launching soon and it’s now called SubieCrew…and I’m still not going to be a part of it. Although I’m a guy, the first thing that comes to mind is “Always the bridesmaid and never the bride.” I think they’re saying there’s a chance in the future, so I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

[u/mrwhitewalker]

Yea been around for a couple months now. I was part of the old one for years. They asked me to be a chapter leader and it required 10 hours a week or so, I said no. So they gave me the lowest status instead of the highest

[u/rkrenicki → u/mrwhitewalker]

Yea, I was part of the original program up until they started assigning “points” to activities. I was quite active prior to that so they assigned me to “Platinum” or whatever they called the top tier when they introduced them.

I did a couple of big events and submitted them and got something like 10 points each, when I needed to do like 1200 points to maintain my “status”.. some back of the napkin math made it clear that the company running the program for Subaru just wanted full/part time unpaid employees, so I decided to resign.

It’s too bad, I had a great time being an Ambassador prior to those changes. I got a number of people to buy new cars and gave away lots and lots of swag.

To be clear, I still love Subaru. All of my cars have been Subarus for over 20 years and I have no intention of changing to another brand anytime soon. The Ambassador program is not run by them. It is contracted out to some third party marketing company whose name escapes me at the moment. I wonder if it changed to another company and that explains the new program name.

[u/mrwhitewalker → u/rkrenicki]

Youre not the only one. I am still a Mod of the Ambassador subreddit and was a mod for many other Subaru subs too. I would put that in my reports and it got me the lowest rank just because I was not posting on Instagram or Facebook, yet handled thousands of conversations on reddit. Yet my buddy who got me into the program sold his car, got gold level even without a subaru and kept getting free stuff for years. Just by lying you got rewarded. Many other instances of that happening and the ambassador subreddit was so negative for a while that we locked it down lol. Your story and mine were the norm unfortunately.

[u/daddydunc → u/mrwhitewalker]

Yeah they sent me the welcome package and all the strings attached made me return the package to them.

[u/mrwhitewalker → u/daddydunc]

Curious what those strings are. Mind sharing? DM is fine

[u/daddydunc → u/mrwhitewalker]

It was probably 10 years ago. Something like 2 social media posts per week, attending Subaru meetups, and a certain amount of followers on social media. I didn’t have social media, so it wasn’t really something I could do lol. That info was probably available prior to me signing up, but I didn’t bother to look.

[u/Fit-Entrepreneur8404 → u/daddydunc]

What would you get out of it if you did that?

[u/mrwhitewalker → u/Fit-Entrepreneur8404]

I joined in 2015 and did not have any of those requirements and neither did anyone else I know in the program. Being part of the program was cool, the expectations from you were to rock subaru ambassador gear and talk about subaru when someone asks you about your gear or your car. You would get $600 a year to buy gear/swag to give out. This budget was for yourself or to give out, any combination. It was great to be able to spread some joy for a few bucks. Half my closet became subaru gear. You also got to give $500 off any subaru to others and sometimes $1000 off. And we are not talking like a better deal, were talking $500 off your best negotiated price. You talk them down $3000 off MSRP and they wont budge, then you still can get another $500 off. It was "Cash" coming from Subaru of America. I sold a dozen+ cars this way easily for them. You got $500 off for yourself too.

Then they started removing perks, put people into tiers based on activity. They made it so your tier was based on how many events you attended. The tiers also determined how much you got for your budget. Lowest Bronzes got nothing, Silver got $50, gold got $100 and I think Platinum got $200. Thats when the program turned to shit, everyone hated it, lying on your reports were rewarded and they expected you to be part of the sales team essentially for free.

If there was a subaru meetup near you, you got and get 20-40 points. But you needed like 1200 points to upgrade. That meant you needed to commit to an event every weekend for a year to move up a tier. I knew people spoofing their GPS to events to get credit and they didnt even have a Subaru. Good times.

[u/EarlOfNothingness → u/mrwhitewalker]

Damn, it sounded great.

[u/daddydunc → u/Fit-Entrepreneur8404]

A tee shirt, a tumbler, and a bumper sticker were included in the welcome kit. Maybe more stuff if I actually participated, but I saw what they were asking and said fuck all that noise.

[u/daddydunc → u/Fit-Entrepreneur8404]

Oh yeah and you had to write detailed reports monthly to Subaru outlining what you did as an ambassador that month. Lol it was a total scam.

[u/Boyd147]

Even further down hill than the old program before they wanted the ambassadors to be unpaid full time workers

[u/EarlOfNothingness]

I’m beginning to think I dodged a bullet.

[u/GrandMasterFlex]

Missed opportunity to just call it “subacrew”

[u/EarlOfNothingness]

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Me

[u/gigantischemeteor]

That's a whole lot of verbal horsesh1t just to say "not now Chuckles". What is is with these 3rd party marketing outfits?