The brief - driving Subway® franchise sales

McKenna Townsend has worked with Subway® in the UK and Ireland for over 15 years – helping to grow the brand from just 30 stores to over 2,000. The agency has played a fundamental part in supporting this relentless growth and has worked with the brand across development, consumer, crisis and issues, internal and marketing communication. As part of our on-going franchise development activity, the Subway® brand tasked us with the following:

To generate franchise leads for the UK and Ireland market, in order to continue to drive franchise sales to support the brand’s growth

To leverage the milestone opening of the 200th Subway® store as an opportunity to drive coverage in national, regional and key trade media

Our strategy

Taking an integrated approach, we embarked on a strategic mix of marketing communication activity including advertising, event attendance, sponsorship, website development, media relations, social media, corporate memberships and literature production to drive franchise leads. The ultimate aim was to drive a high number of quality leads that would result in franchise sales in the UK and Ireland. The campaign specifics were:

Design and placement of franchisee recruitment advertising in key publications
Developed a programme of PR, advertising, sponsorship and speaker opportunities for key events, including project management of stand logistics (design, delivery, set-up etc)
Literature production including new adverts, brochures and bespoke event materials. We also reproduced the new franchise brochure, which involved project-management of a photo-shoot to provide imagery, drafting copy and creating supporting materials

Updating the Subway.co.uk website
Set-up and management of a dedicated Subway® franchise development Twitter account
For the milestone store opening, a series of press materials were prepared, including national and regionalised press releases, and a media tour was arranged using a spokesperson for the brand. Campaign specifics were:
- Milestone announcement press release targeted at news, business, franchise and retail media
- Key facts about job creation, investment into local economies and development goals
- Tailored regional versions of the national release, to maximise media opportunities across the UK and Ireland
- Media tour with Greg Madigan, Area Development Manager for Subway^® UK and Ireland
- Supported with images of 2,000^th store and its franchisee

Winning Results

Franchise sales leads generated – surpassing our lead target, resulting in over 250 franchises being sold during this period
Regular media coverage was generated in national, trade and online media
Attendance at key events including the National Convenience Show
The UK and Ireland franchise lead development activity is so successful it is viewed by Subway^® worldwide headquarters in the US as the blueprint of best practice for all international markets. McKenna Townsend works with Subway^® globally, supporting numerous countries around the world to help them drive franchise sales

For the milestone 2,000^th store opening:

Live interview on BBC Radio 5 Live –syndicated on BBC Radio stations throughout the day
Interview on Sky News, at a central London Subway^® store – broadcast throughout the day
Interviews with leading national news, business and trade media, including Sunday Express, Irish Independent, British Baker, The Franchise Magazine, Quick Bite and Food Bev
Plus maximising regional media opportunities with a photocall and media briefing at the 2,000^th store

The brief - driving Subway® franchise sales

Our strategy

Winning Results

Address

Navigation

Address

Contact

Privacy

Connect

Latest Tweets