Subway's High Way

Brandweek,  June 12, 2000  by Theresa Howard

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$75M to Tout Taste, Quality Upgrade

Subway in September will break its first branding initiative under recently tapped agency Messner Vetere Berger McNamee Schmetterer/EURO RSCG, New York, with a $75 million campaign that attempts to bridge claims about health and taste under the tagline "Eat fresh."

The push will come as Subway looks to upgrade its image with a new store design, changes to sandwich production and ingredients. The ad campaign will unveil a shadow puppet in dual roles: first, as a spokeshand soliciting consumers in various settings to eat at Subway then as the hands of the "sandwich artist" assigned to assemble Subway offerings in the retail units.

"The character will support the notion that a Subway sandwich is made the way a customer wants it, that it is made fresh, and that it is the sandwich artist that actually makes the sandwich," said Chris Carroll, marketing director for the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, Milford, Conn., which oversees the chain's advertising and marketing expenditures.

Subway will attempt to assure consumers that the chain's underlying healthy-for-you benefit is compatible with good taste by emphasizing the notion of fresh, made-to-order food. As part of the broader upgrade program, restaurants will no longer control cold cut portions via sheets of wax paper, and it will switch its turkey breast offering to roasted turkey breast.

"Fresh means a couple of things," Carroll said. "It means fresh ingredients and ifs made right away. We've stayed too long on just the low-fat message. Our consumers describe us wholesome nutrition. 'Eat fresh' provides the springboard for a low-fat or great taste message. In developing the campaign with Messner we said we had to have the ability to promote the product as hero and to allow the message to be about particular products."

Among those products will be a new sandwich line under the working name Subway Selects that mixes and matches two new breads--parmesan-and-oregano and harvest wheat--with a menu of flavorful sauces such as Honey Mustard, Horseradish, Asiago Caesar and Southwest Spicy.

Lately the chain has performed well--with average unit sales up 12% since January though the chain does not release same-store data--on the strength of the health message in two promotional ads airing since the start of the year. One features Tae-bo king Billy Blanks, and another Jared Fogle, a customer who lost 245 pounds by eating solely from Subway's "Seven Under Six Grams of Fat" menu array.

Although emphasizing good taste, Subway won't abandon the health approach, Carroll said, using the Seven Under Six message during key seasonal windows, such as the post-New-Year's-resolution period in January and swim-suit-prep spring.

Nor will Subway neglect kids, with meal premiums around Power Puff Girls in August to be followed by another Nickelodeon tie-in, this one around a direct-to-video Blues Clues episode.

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