Restaurant Marketing Watch: Taylor Swift helps Subway grab Millennials' attentionRestaurant Marketing Watch: Taylor Swift helps Subway grab Millennials' attention

When it comes to getting the attention of the elusive Millennial, a global pop star like Taylor Swift can help.

Subway has discovered as much with a marketing campaign in partnership with Diet Coke that is reaching a fever pitch in the days leading up to Swift’s latest album release next Monday.



On Oct. 1, Subway and Diet Coke — Coca-Cola is the chain’s beverage supplier — launched a promotion offering fans an opportunity to meet Swift during her 2015 concert tour by purchasing a limited-edition 30-ounce cup at Subway restaurants.

Each cup featured a specially-marked code to enter the #MeetTaylor contest on Subway’s website, or by downloading a Subway Freshbuzz app.

Through the Subway app, fans could also pre-order the album, “1989,” which is expected to be big.

According to Broadwayworld.com, the global superstar’s last album, “RED,” released two years ago, sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, including 1.2 million copies in the U.S. in its first week. It had the highest first-week sales debut of any album in more than a decade.

Subway chief marketing officer Tony Pace said Thursday he didn’t have stats on how many users pre-ordered “1989” through the chain’s app, but he said many restaurants are asking for more cups, and the brand is “very happy with the social conversation that’s happening.”
 

The Swift–Subway connection alone offered fodder for other creative content, like a Mashable video suggesting that most of the pop star’s songs are not about unrequited love, but sandwiches. (No, that isn’t Swift singing.)

The campaign, which continues through Nov. 15, has a number of significant threads that have fueled social media buzz at various points over the six-week period. Swift does have an album to promote, after all, so she’s making the media rounds, and Subway is doing what it can to take part.

On Oct. 23, Swift was scheduled to appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and perform on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on a Subway-branded stage. It didn’t hurt that Ryan Seacrest mentioned it on the radio.

Pace said the Jimmy Kimmel show will also feature a skit involving the Swift–Subway cup, providing yet another opportunity for viral content.

In a world where DVR lets viewers skip commercials and Millennials hardly watch TV, this type of branded content is working for Subway, Pace said.

“We’ve had a lot of successful integrations,” he said.

For years, Subway has worked its logos, sandwiches and cups onto TV shows, from “The Middle” on ABC to “Community” on NBC. Don’t forget, it was Subway back in 2009 that fought so valiantly to save the NBC TV show “Chuck.”

And, of course, the chain had an even bigger role in NBC’s extreme weight loss show “The Biggest Loser,” which ties into Subway’s healthful positioning.

More recently, Subway has been creating its own content, like “The 4 to 9ers,” a short-form digital video comedy series about teens working at Subway, which debuted on Hulu in 2012 and now has a third season underway.

In June, a second branded series, which, like “The 4 to 9ers” was also developed by Los Angeles-based Content & Co., called “Summer with Cimorelli,” about six sisters who earned Internet fame by posting videos of themselves singing a cappella versions of pop songs on YouTube. They also eat a lot of sandwiches.



Pace said the series has won an unexpected number of fans in Europe, and Subway is now using it in marketing efforts in Germany and Spain.

“It’s a concept that applies globally,” he said.

For Subway, developing branded content on TV and through digital channels is a long-term strategy, one that may linger far beyond the popularity of artists like Swift.

“We’re all looking for shareable content where the brand can appropriately exist,” said Pace. “At the end of the day, there are going to be people who have seen it and are likely to say, ‘Hey, have you seen that thing?’ This is something we’ve been doing for a long time, and it’s got great value to us.”

Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].
Follow her on Twitter: @livetodineout