Subaru ‘Barkley’ Dog Ads Have TV Viewers Talking

Three Subaru commercials starring the Barkleys, a family of driving dogs first introduced in a 2013 campaign, dominate our weekly Most Engaging Auto Ads chart, powered for WardsAuto by iSpot.tv.

The No.1 spot, “Dog Tested: Puppy,” actually made its debut (at No.2) in the first week of February. Now it’s joined by two other Barkleys spots: “Dog Tested: Windshield Wiper” in fourth place and “Dog Tested: Phone Navigation” in fifth.

A long-running Mazda commercial, “A Driver’s Life: Driving Matters,” in second place, makes a repeat appearance in the ranking, moving up from fourth place. Backed by heavy spending – it has had 5,223 national airings since it debuted last May – the nostalgia trip continues to strike a chord with viewers, having racked up more than 20 million views and 1,200 comments on YouTube alone.

Meanwhile, just one Super Bowl 50 ad, Hyundai’s “Ryanville,” starring Ryan Reynolds, remains on the Top 5 chart, in third place.

iSpot.tv tracks TV ads in real-time and allows customers to monitor social actions, search activity and online video views associated with TV spots across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Bing and Yahoo!.

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1. Subaru TV Spot, 'Dog Tested: Puppy'

16.99% Digital Share of Voice, 558k Earned Online Views

2. 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata TV Spot, 'A Driver's Life: Driving Matters'

9.92% Digital Share of Voice, 1.0M Earned Online Views

3. 2017 Hyundai Elantra Super Bowl 2016 TV Spot, 'Ryanville'

8.41% Digital Share of Voice, 96k Earned Online Views

4. Subaru TV Spot, 'Dog Tested: Windshield Wiper'

7.88% Digital Share of Voice, 704k Earned Online Views

5. Subaru TV Spot, 'Dog Tested: Phone Navigation'

7.47% Digital Share of Voice, 612k Earned Online Views