Subway is getting more serious about social

Subway, the sandwich chain trying to reinvigorate itself with a heavy dose of marketing, is now taking its “Refresh” message to social media with the help of a new agency. Tombras is charged with interpreting Subway’s “Eat Fresh Refresh” campaign for a social audience, aiming to find ways to penetrate youth culture, encouraging people to download the Subway app and use it often. These have long been considered vulnerabilities for Subway. The agency is known as the social voice of brands like Bush’s baked beans, chicken chain Zaxby’s, Big Lots and MoonPie, and most recently took over the estimable Steak-umm social account. Subway's social media presence was previously maintained by a combination of in-house and agency talent. The Tombras partnership marks the first time Subway has fully outsourced these duties to a specific agency. Tombras execs described the challenge of establishing an agile social identity on the fly, one that can behave differently depending on the platform and carry the chain’s messages to the social world in a relevant and meaningful way. “When clients come to us—especially well-established clients like Subway, it’s not about brand awareness because they already have that. It’s about brand perception, or re-energizing and reinvigorating the brand among a younger audience, and those are audiences that connect with brands on social,” said Ashley Butturini, Tombras’ chief client officer for Subway. “They usually are spending more time on social than they are watching TV or even streaming. These enterprise clients know the importance of social, but they don’t know how to approach it with the same amount of rigor and energy as their TV. That’s what’s happening with Subway. Everybody knows about them, but we need to reinvigorate the brand among a different audience.” Subway last summer introduced “Eat Fresh Refresh,” a brand repositioning it had worked on for more than a year with agencies McGarryBowen, Current Global, United Entertainment Group, Jack Morton, Carat and Proof Advertising. The effort, which followed seven consecutive years of U.S. sales declines, included a menu overhaul, changes in stores and on its app to better facilitate a growing delivery and pickup businesses, and a team of new superstar sports spokespeople. “As we enter the next phase of our brand refresh, we’re now modernizing how we reach consumers through social media,” Carrie Walsh, global CMO of Subway, said in a statement. “We don’t want to do work that is just on-culture. We want to inspire culture, and Tombras is going to help us do that.” According to Butturini, Tombras is currently “flying the plane while building it,” developing a voice and personality that can adapt to the unpredictable demands of the cultural conversation. One indicator of a livelier brand voice came up during the agency’s first week on the job, when it responded to MSCHF’s “Cease & Desist Grand Prix” in which the art collective created a series of unauthorized logo wear, daring selected brands, including Subway, to call a stop to it. Subway met the challenge with a cheeky response that not only upped the ante and got its fans involved but included a cleverly executed cease and desist letter that won the respect of the brand’s legal team. Two can play this game. Who's interested in this bad boy? Hurry before @mschf shuts us down pic.twitter.com/g3mGBh9bMd— Subway® (@SUBWAY) January 25, 2022 Jeff Benjamin, chief creative officer of Tombras, said incidents like the MSCHF stunt can forge the character of a brand, and provide an opportunity to influence perception of it in a way that other forms of media cannot. “I think that a lot of times, it’s how a brand behaves that determines its fame,” he said. “The most famous brands in the world are not famous just because of their ads; in fact, most of the time, they are more famous for the way they behave than the way they act. That’s the philosophy that we're taking into this relationship.” Player-coach Subway gave Tombras a set of broad marching orders but latitude in how it could approach them. “They planted a seed of what they’d been exploring internally but they want us to explore that across different platforms,” Butturini said, noting that Subway’s response to one stimulus on TikTok may not resemble how its Twitter feed would respond. “A brand, just like a person, doesn’t show up the same way in every situation. So there are going to be times that we lean more into humor,” Butturini said. “There are going to be times where we’ll be more food-forward. That’s what we're figuring out now. How does Subway show up, and what is our voice across different platforms and at different moments?” Subway's social character will take on a role akin to a “player-coach” who is helpful and authoritative when need be, but also playful and competitive, said Benjamin. It's a stance that reflects the brand’s long alignment with athletes and sports leagues. Subway is an official NFL sponsor, rides with Nascar's Kevin Harvick, and got its Refresh campaign off the ground behind celebrity endorsements from athletes like Tom Brady. From a fifth-floor war room at Tombras’ Knoxville, Tennessee headquarters, about 25 social brand managers in stadium-style seating monitor Google trends, news feeds and Twitter on large screens, and scheme on Slack to craft where and how their brands can participate, Butturini said. An on-site content studio can get to work immediately on creative assets to accompany those engagements. Social campaigns are able to bring urgency and direction to the brand's message. "I think the challenge for us is how you create some momentum, and do it in a way where there’s direction to it, so that we’re building something," said Benjamin. A current promotion indicative of the brand’s social direction is the “Subway Vault,” or a series of sandwiches created by athletes and available only to users who order them on the Subway app. The brand launched the Vault as part of the Super Bowl Experience earlier this month in Los Angeles, showcasing sandwiches created to the tastes of NFL stars Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and Trevor Lawrence. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Official Subway (@subway) The promotion reflects some similarities to McDonald’s “Famous Orders” platform that’s been driving interest in its menu while dangling benefits for app users. Chains can use customer data their apps generate toward further promotion, and to forge tighter relationships with users.

Subway is getting more serious about social

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