In the final weeks leading up to the 2024 Super Bowl, GSTV was tasked by Subway and their media agency, Carat NY, to come up with a splashy onscreen activation to promote the new Footlong Sidekicks (a new product line with cookies, churros, and pretzels), drive restaurant visitation and complement its star-studded new brand spots featuring NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. The new “Drop Everything” campaign was set to be their biggest campaign of the year.
The goal of the campaign was to amplify the message in the stickiest way possible and drive awareness of the new product line. Additionally, it was important to turn this awareness into action, capturing the undivided attention of audiences at GSTV screens who are in a real take-action mindset: when they are en route to do something else following fueling up and can be influenced on what their next stop may be.
Taking cues from Subway and Carat NY’s Drop Everything brief, with the key insight that “Sidekicks are the unapologetic escape that you need in your day,” the GSTV team enlisted the services of Instagram sensation Tank Sinatra (Host of Tank’s Good News on GSTV) to drop a promo for the clients explaining why he’s the perfect person to push their new Footlong Sidekicks menu offerings on America’s Most Engaging On-The-Go Video Network.
Once the agency gave the greenlight, GSTV’s internal studio, IGNITE, got to work, writing the script for the branded content segment, as well as developing an idea that marries proximity with crave-ability, mapping out 18,799 GSTV locations within one mile of a Subway restaurant with the copy alerting the viewer that they are less than 5,280 footlong Churros, Cookies or Pretzels from their nearest Subway location. For GSTV stations beyond the 1-mile marker, an evergreen tag was utilized for added awareness and reach.
The IGNITE team entered Bravo Stages in Chelsea, NYC with Tank Sinatra and shot several setups for the Drop Everything idea, whereby Tank is so excited to try the buzzy new snacks that he leaves GSTV mid-show to sample them. For the campaign launch, the segment was posted to Tank’s Instagram channel in addition to the first-ever “Quarter Tank Pod” on GSTV, which is a 60-second content pod that equates to roughly 25% of GSTV’s viewing experience, where 15-second Subway spots aired on each side of the Tank’s Good News integration.
As with any campaign, ultimately reaching consumers in a way that drives impact was the biggest challenge. In a landscape where it has become increasingly difficult for marketers to reach their core audiences – especially the 25-34 set that is watching less and less TV – marketers have no choice but to rethink their advertising strategy. But that’s why Subway turned to GSTV.
GSTV’s power lies in its ability to capture the undivided attention of audiences at scale and it has truly positioned itself as the last screen experienced before intent. In fact, 84% of GSTV viewers continue to spend money the day they fuel up across retailers, services, consumer goods and other sectors, providing a significant opportunity for Subway to break through the noise with the right influencer like Tank Sinatra and the right platform like GSTV.
The campaign was a huge success! The video performed incredibly well on the Tank’s Good News Instagram, garnering over 250,000 organic plays and was featured in an Ad Age article examining the trend of influencers looking beyond just social media for brand opportunities. On GSTV, a measurement study of the campaign conducted with Foursquare found that the campaign drove +8.4% visitation lift (vs. Control), driving +6.5M incremental store visits, and garnering a cost per incremental visit (CPIV) that was 20x more efficient than Foursquare’s benchmark for QSR’s.
