SUBVERTING EXPECTATIONS

This campaign represented the largest brand refresh in Subway’s nearly 60-year history with unprecedented updates to the menu, the food, and beyond. We had so much new, even our famous spokespeople couldn’t cover it all.

There was “So much new, we can’t fit it all in one ad”, so we wanted to break from the limits of usual video tropes and constructs to surround consumers whatever they were doing, wherever they were. So we hijacked space in other ads. From hijacking a headphones commercial to ads for local businesses – the Refresh blurred the lines of branded content.

A STALE SITUATION

Moving into 2021, the Subway business was stale. Traffic and sales were at a 7-year low, the press was questioning the quality of our ingredients and fast casual restaurants were cutting into the entire fast food category. With losses mounting and traffic down, they needed to jumpstart the brand’s relevance and announce it in the biggest way possible.

BIGGEST REFRESH EVER

To address this, Subway overhauled the brand by introducing new and improved ingredients, new sandwiches, even updating the packaging and customer experience in store. With so much new, it was the largest refresh in Subway’s history.

Our brief was to showcase these changes. But since there were so many improvements to talk about, fitting everything into a traditional campaign structure simply wasn’t possible – and that became our creative and media idea.

SO MUCH NEW WE COULDN’T FIT IT ALL IN

For the campaign idea, ‘There’s so much new, we couldn’t fit it all in’ – the task was simple: blur the lines of reality to show the brand refresh seeping into the real world.

To do this, we created anthemic television ads featuring the biggest names in sports. But when they couldn’t fit it all in – we sought out more time anywhere we could reach our audience. We accomplished this by buying airtime no one ever had before - in commercials for other brands, in influencer content, in show promos, even in the weather report on gas station TVs. We made branded content an integral part of the “So Much New” campaign.

REIGNITE LATENT LOVE

While Subway is a brand committed to constant improvement, we had lost our momentum with consumers. In order to shift perception, we needed to tell consumers about the multitude of updates Subway made to the ingredients, the sandwiches, and even the customer experience.

It was time to reignite the latent love – but with “So Much New”, our strategy was to use branded content to surround consumers with every aspect of the brand refresh.

SO MUCH CONTENT

With so much new to announce in Subway’s biggest brand refresh, we used unique branded content partnerships to surround our audience throughout their day. To do this, we worked creatively with other brands, businesses, talents, and media partners to integrate the ‘So much new’ campaign seamlessly into unique branded content – from TV shows, to other brands’ ads and even hijacking influencer content.

ANNOUNCE THE REFRESH

In July, we launched anthem spots starring Steph Curry, Serena Williams, and Megan Rapinoe. But there was so much new, all our athletes were getting cut off. So we hijacked live TV and social. On launch day, we hijacked Good Morning America with our all-new Subway ingredients. In social, we hijacked American landmarks like the Statue of Liberty with Snapchat’s AR experience.

SURROUND CULTURE

Beginning in August, we used branded content to surround consumers throughout their day. From intercepting a headphones ad with Serena Williams to showing up In Trevor Lawrence’s shampoo ad, to branded segments for TV shows on MTV, Telemundo and Adult Swim. We hijacked co-branded TV ads for local businesses like Attorney Jacob Emrani and car dealership Galpin Motors. We even borrowed time in Tom Brady’s fragrance ad.

Because with so much new, we had to get creative to fit it all in.

The success of the Refresh campaign has been unprecedented within Subway. Over the course of the campaign, the Refresh campaign garnered a total of over 3 Billion earned media impressions across 3,000 pieces of media coverage. Within the first full month Subway was already exceeding weekly sales records (and that sales impact continued to climb throughout the year). Their top 5,000 stores observed weekly sales lifts of over 33% – leading to the brand’s highest average weekly sales per restaurant since 2013.

But just as importantly, consumers are starting to see Subway in a refreshed light. This campaign has led Subway to be seen as more relevant with lifts in core brand attributes – Innovative - up 43%, High quality - up 29%. These shifts in perception have also led to a +58% lift in future visit consideration.