Subway 2023
A year subsumed by giant sandwiches.
In 2023, I stepped in as Creative Director of Subway across the UK and EMEA. As it happens, this was to be an eventful year for the world-famous purveyor of footlong sandwiches. After 56 years, Subway decided to do something radical – introduce a menu.
Consisting of 15 preordained sandwich combinations, the new Series Menu marked a significant departure from Subway's previous anything-goes philosophy. However, it's fair to say that its introduction wasn’t universally welcomed. Many loyal Subway fans cherished the freedom to fill their sandwiches with whatever they damn well pleased. Research showed that the last thing they wanted was someone else dictating what they could or couldn't put on their footlong.
So rather than launching with much fanfare, a degree of diplomacy was required. We needed to introduce the Series Menu while also making it abundantly clear that it would not limit with anyone’s freedom to create their own sandwich. The menu was merely a new and easier option, ideal for those who prefer to leave the sandwich-making to the experts.
With that in mind, we developed our ‘Two Ways to Subway’ campaign, featuring contrasting characters playfully dramatising the two distinct ordering styles now catered for at Subway.
A Europe-wide OOH campaign followed, which introduced some of the standout creations on the new Series Menu – while also highlighting the added benefits of choosing a bigger, better lunch.
This was followed up with another OOH campaign to remind lunch-goers of the Footlong’s superior size, celebrating the fact that it offers a more satisfying and flavour-packed feed.
Meanwhile, Subway signed up as the official sponsor of two of TV's biggest reality shows - Love Island and the return of Big Brother. We used this as another opportunity to playfully showcase some new menu items.
As if that wasn’t enough change for one year, in 2023, Subway also introduced a brand new loyalty programme. Unlike the previous iteration, customers could now earn Subway Cash with every purchase to spend on anything they wanted. Relatively speaking, it was a fairly simple and straightforward message to convey. Almost too simple. But we fixed that.
Finally, we used Halloween as an opportunity to have a little fun while also experimenting with some obligatory AI technology. As the days grew colder and darker, it was the perfect time of year to spotlight the deliciously melty cheesiness of Subway’s hot-pressed SubMelts.
Inspired by the well-known phenomenon of cheese dreams, we created a cautionary film playfully warning customers about the potentially freaky side effects of indulging in this ultra-cheesy feast late at night.
The films showcased a series of genuine cheese dreams crowdsourced from the public via Subway and Uber Eats’ social channels, which we then brought to life through the suitably freaky aesthetics of AI.
The campaign launched in the lead-up to Halloween, paired with a 20% discount promotion on Uber Eats. Available only after dark, it dared customers to awaken their own cheese dreams.