Turning the Group Chat Into the Media Budget

The Challenge

Out-charm, don’t out-spend

Fast food is the loudest, priciest category on social, and Subway couldn’t out-spend the giants – so we out-charmed them instead. Polished food shots were out; the real, slightly chaotic truth of a Subway order was in.

The Strategy

The mate in your group chat

We made Subway sound like the mate in your group chat who always has an opinion, using Comment Generated Outreach to jump into conversations and viral moments as they happened. The campaigns backed it up: the Made Your Way Challenge sent two mismatched influencer duos on a four-episode adventure with a very extra pop-up shoot in London; Mug of Life let Sub Club creators show off their personal style; and Scratch and Sniff x Grime Gran promoted festive stuffing bread with an actually-sniffable billboard – yes, really. There was even a scarf collab with designer Hattie Crowther for the Women’s League Cup.