McKenna Townsend has worked with Subway in the UK and Ireland for over 20 years, helping to grow the brand from just 30 stores to over 2,500. The agency has played a fundamental part in driving this relentless growth for Subway. We have worked with the brand across franchise development, consumer relations, crisis and issues, internal and marketing communications.

As part of our franchise development activity, Subway appointed us to generate franchise sales leads in the UK and Ireland. Our PR team provided exceptional support in keeping the Subway brand front of mind in the mainstream media, business press and franchise trade media.

The advertising team utilised key platforms across social media and digital advertising to reach new audiences via Facebook and Google Ads advertising campaigns.

In addition, our in-house design team developed a dedicated Subway franchise microsite, print and digital advertising, brochures and flyers, and assisted internal teams on advertising requirements.

McKenna Townsend also supported Subway with organising events and sourcing sponsorship opportunities, helping to maximise its presence at key trade shows and exhibitions and secured prominent speaker opportunities. The Events team also organised many events and conferences for Subway, including, one for each milestone of 1,000 and 2,000 stores across the UK and Ireland.

As a result of our work and activity on franchise lead development, Subway’s global HQ viewed our approach as the blueprint for all its markets worldwide. Through this work, the McKenna Townsend team has supported international markets to deliver franchise sales in Spain, France and Germany.

Key projects & highlights

The One Show

The team secured an opportunity with BBC One’s The One Show for a mini-series on franchising. The four-part series followed the journey of new franchise owner, Kareemaa Musa, as she opened her first Subway store in Barnsley.

The McKenna Townsend team facilitated all the filming, working closely with producers to ensure all key moments of Kareemaa’s journey were captured. To maximise the opportunity further, we coordinated a programme of PR and social media activity the week before and week of broadcast.

This approach raised awareness of the series and franchise opportunities with Subway.

As a result, The One Show films resulted in an advertising equivalent value of £657,100 and reached an audience of more than 49 million (excluding iPlayer views). During the week of broadcast website traffic increased by 123% and franchise leads were up by an average of 71%. Overall, the project reached an audience of 50.65 million.