Eat Fresh Refresh

Challenge

BRAND KNOWN FOR FRESHNESS BECAME STALE

Subway was an original disruptor that broke up the burger monopoly with fresher options. Over time, new players and brand missteps ate away its iconic promise of “Eat Fresh.” The headlines were brutal. Revelations that Subway sandwiches had something in common with your yoga mat—even legendary foot longs weren’t measuring up with complaints of skimping on size. Reputation broken as a global pandemic rolled in.

Solution

GOTTA REFRESH TO BE FRESH

Subway embarked on its largest update in the chain’s 56-year history. We’re talking new ingredients, new sandwiches, mobile app upgrades and substantial restaurant remodels. With so much new news, we needed expansive carrier pigeons to get the word out. A spokesperson? Not enough. We assembled a “spokesteam” of Steph Curry, Serena Williams, Tom Brady, Megan Rapinoe, Charles Barkley, Marshawn Lynch, Russel Wilson and Trevor Lawrence. No, the news could never fit in a single spot—so we had to cut off our celebs mid-sentence, we had spokesperson refresh moments mid-commercial. We even bought time in other ads to sandwich in our message within regional car dealer, attorney, furniture store spots. Bringing the refresh to Beats by Dre? That too. Heck we refreshed Subway’s entire media approach, taking over Time Square while infiltrating culture with surprise appearances in popular talk shows, cartoons, Spanish-language TV and weather reports.

We created over 100 pieces of content to try and cover it all and still failed to fit it all in. So we got creative and found a media placement no one had ever used before. We bought time in other brands’ commercials.

And to close out the campaign, we launched this ad in the first game of the NFL season.