The start of SubDog’s journey was when a seemingly innocent April Fools Facebook post dropped and created a stir – over 27,000 people were compelled to engage with the post stating that Subway would be introducing a hot dog!

The success of SubDog’s launch campaign is directly linked to the integrated media solution that was born from social listening and a true human insight.

The task: infiltrate Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) culture, improve Subway’s relevance and consideration-to-purchase scores, and hit high sales targets. As a distant #4-5 in both market share and marketing spend, this was going to be a challenge.

The Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) category was no longer just about pizza, burgers and sandwiches – guests demanded variety and innovation. These guests were also fickle in their media choices, especially men. We had 5 weeks to find them, connect with them, and have them come back to Subway more frequently.

Being outshouted 6:1 by the market leader who had strong connections to cultural moments at this time, we knew we had to get creative to make an impact. Sport, the most competitive of areas for QSR’s, was ramping up, and we had to find a way in, but traditional methods weren’t going to cut it.

The road to Subdog was, in hindsight, obvious:

- In the QSR category, CRAVE and NEW PRODUCTS drives consumption and therefore growth. Subway traditionally performed poorly on both of these.

- Our idea was to capitalise on the love that Australian and New Zealanders have for sausages on bread via our unique ability to turn our product into a media channel – the Footlong bread

- We needed an in with sport and males, the most expensive and hard-to-access areas

- Food consumed whilst watching sport is generally sub-standard

- Traditional hot dogs are synonymous with watching sport

- Enter Subdog!

- We had the greatest product and then needed to launch it in the most impactful way

- We listened to our customers, who gave us the perfect platform for launch, and set the light-hearted tone for our approach

Our challenge: National coverage of new news PLUS high impact WITH minimal budget and low share of voice. PLUS we had to go hard after men in the sporting environments. We needed eSOV strategies.

Enter Dave Thompson, a Subway fan we’d rattled in an April Fools joke earlier in the year when we teased on Facebook on 1st April that we were launching SubDog. He was so outraged he announced on social media that “If this is an April Fools joke, I’m never eating Subway again”. We used Dave to dramatise the impact of this SubDog launch, create over the top, entertaining and absurd content that would cut-through.

Targeted media to males 18-39 generally and male sports lovers was key. We needed more than just an ad about the product. We needed to personify Subdog, and so Subdog Man became our vehicle to make noise in these environments.

We launched the SubDog with a Welcome Back Dave Thompson message around his local Subway restaurant and shared his reaction across the key social channels: TikTok, Meta and YouTube.

For the next 5 weeks, with Subdog Man as our creative cue, we ambushed males via sponsorships and integrations within the first NFL match of the season, the Cricket (NZ vs AU) and home race of the V8 Supercars (which Subway sponsors a team). We surrounded sporting events and stadiums, and integrated within the V8 Supercars broadcast of the highest reaching Bathurst race. We owned top-rating sports podcasts, and time-targeting (“smoko”) audio.

Our mass reaching channels of TV, BVOD, OOH and the digital heroes of Youtube, Meta, Tik Tok and high-impact mobile enabled us to prime as many of our mass target (People 18-54) as well as upweight at the key hunger zone of 10am to 1pm each day.

SubDog sold out! Before the campaign finished! It was the most successful NPD and LTO ever.

We achieved record-breaking sales mix - it peaked at +7% of total products in AU, and +4.5% in NZ, with NO cannibalisation of other products – all menu items had increases in units sold each week of the campaign.

Highest on record sales overall - +22% in AU on previous highest sales period. Plus:

• Units sold vs previous highest sales period - AU +15%, NZ +65%

• Click & Collect sales vs 2019 - AU +26%, NZ +20%.

• Click & Collect Units vs 2019 – AU +14%, NZ +8%

• Average check (transaction value) vs 2019 – AU +29%, NZ +36%

• Franchisee profitability vs 2019 – AU +141%, NZ +91%

Engagement rates: Welcome Back Dave Thompson content killed it - 1.1% vs 0.31% benchmark, a cost per engagement of $0.03!

Sport is widely believed to be integral in defining the Australian and New Zealand identity. Both nations have a remarkable and enduring affection for sport - loving to both play and watch. Roy Morgan: 73% of total people in Australia watch Sports on TV regularly. It is a common thread amongst many ANZ males. Of the top 10 TV shows, sport dominates - in Australia it represents 9 of the top 10 programs in 2022

Sausage on bread – aka “sausage sizzle”, “sanga’s”, “sausage sambo’s”. Could be considered Australia’s National Dish. They turn up everywhere – at election polling booths ("democracy sausages"), Bunnings (an Australian hardware store that is the third most trusted brand and sells them every weekend), school functions and family BBQ’s. Hotdogs are the commercial version of these (more and more dedicated Hot Dog restaurants are opening up), and are the staple meal at sporting events