Campaign Imminent: Subway rebrands rewards program, increases digital spend (Score 60)

Sales Lead: Subway just made a new MVP Rewards loyalty program available to its 30m members.

• MVP Rewards, a rebrand of MyWay Rewards, will automatically enroll current members in the new program.
• Upon joining, new members will receive a bonus 250 points on the points-per-dollar app.
• Members who rise to high-enough tiers in the program will also have access to exclusive Subway merchandise and VIP exclusives.
• This refresh is part of Subway's ongoing, multi-year, top-to-bottom menu and brand positioning overhaul, a response to the past several years' decline in sales.
• The company will likely:
  • Launch a campaign promoting the new program
  • Continue increasing digital spend
  • Seek new agency partners following a recent promotion (more below)
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennial men

Recent leadership shifts:

• This launch closely follows the August 2023 promotion of marketing SVP Cristina Wells.
  • ​​​​​​​Wells joined the company in December 2016 and most recently served as its US marketing VP.
  • She now leads all US marketing initiatives.

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, Subway has allocated roughly $123.1m toward national TV commercials, down 18% from the roughly $150.8m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The company spent around $242.5m on this channel last year after having spent 10% more, around $266m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: Subway's 2023 commercials have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching shows such as NFL Football, College Basketball, NBA Basketball, SportsCenter, and the 2023 NFL Draft.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The sub chain has spent approximately $29.7m on digital ads YTD, a 69% increase from the approximately $17.6m spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, the company has earned about 3.5b digital impressions via Instagram (35%), YouTube (34%), Facebook (22%), desktop video (6%), desktop display (2%), and mobile display (1%) ads.
  • Last year: In 2022, the company's estimated full-year spend declined by 16% to $22.9m from that of $27.3m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • Subway utilizes Google Ads along with search, OOH, digital, local broadcast, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and online video (via Youtube.com) ads.
  • The company sponsors podcasts such as Armstrong & Getty On Demand, The Diary Of A CEO, CSiN Best Bets, The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show, and Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: Reach out soon to see if the aforementioned leadership shift leads to agency reviews.
• Current agency roster:
  • Proof​​​​​​​: Creative, media, and experiential AOR
  • Dentsu Creative: Creative AOR
  • Carat.: Media AOR
  • The Tombras Group: Social AOR
  • FleishmanHillard: PR AOR
  • INVNT Group: Experiential agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; search marketing insights by Bombora; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser.