December 17, 2007
Brand: SUBWAY® Restaurants
Company: Modiv Media
Background: The SUBWAY® restaurant chain includes more than 28,300 locations in 86 countries and is the second largest fast-food chain in the world, surpassing McDonald’s® number of locations throughout the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The SUBWAY® brand is ranked as the number one franchise opportunity in Entrepreneur magazine’s 2007 “Annual Franchise 500” listing; the 15th time in 20 years that the chain has achieved this honor.
Based in Milford, Connecticut, and with regional offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Brisbane, Miami, and Singapore, the SUBWAY® restaurant chain was co-founded in 1965.
Goal:
SUBWAY® Buffalo faced several recurring challenges: seasonal clientele, limited advertising dollars and a need to connect with a tech-savvy, young customer base.
They set several high-level goals to combat these challenges and ultimately gain a better understanding of its customers’ buying preferences so as to increase lunchtime traffic and sales:
- Orchestrate a variety of marketing messages to on-the-go customers
- Influence their customers’ purchasing behavior at their “moment of decision” —at specific times of the day
- Offer mobile coupons to drive customers to locations and eliminate the need for manual coupon clipping
- Employ an additional marketing channel method via mobile phone with customers
- Develop customer loyalty by developing highly personal one-to-one customer communications
Solution:After considerable research, SUBWAY® Buffalo selected Modiv Media, a leader in retail interactive media delivery solutions, to launch an interactive mobile campaign called “My SUBWAY Mobile.” A partnership by the SUBWAY® Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust and Modiv Media, 12 restaurant locations in the Buffalo, NY area served as a testing ground for the program, which included a series of text-message offers that were valid for a limited time. The campaign, currently in place at more than 100 locations, uses the Modiv Mobile service to deliver targeted and relevant alerts, coupons, and promotions to customers’ mobile phones.
Results:
The My SUBWAY Mobile campaign has been a monumental success. Developed based on their firsthand knowledge of their local clientele and a database of precise accurate customer information, SUBWAY® Buffalo is now able to send relevant and targeted offers to its customers at the “moment of decision” with where to eat and when – directly influencing buying behaviors while building strong one-to-one relationships and customer loyalty.
In June 2006, a dozen SUBWAY® franchises deployed the Modiv Mobile solution to target 1,600 customers. After a year’s time, the program has been expanded to more than 100 restaurants, offering a dozen promotional offers to over 4,500 customers.
The success in Buffalo is encouraging SUBWAY® franchises in other areas to implement the mobile promotion. Recently, more than 300 SUBWAY® stores in the Seattle-Tacoma area began offering My SUBWAY Mobile to their customers.
- A startling 50% coupon redemption rate on the first mobile offer with the 12 test stores — as compared to the typical 1%-2% response rates from traditional paper-based coupons
- 8.6% average coupon redemption rate to the mobile offers
- 150 mobile-phone opt-ins per week
- Less than a 1% opt-out rate since the program’s inception
With 240 million U.S. phone subscribers and 150 million Americans using SMS, SUBWAY® is able to reach shoppers at any time of the day to influence their decision-making – ensuring people will opt for a BMT instead of a Big Mac.
About Modiv Media
For brand marketers and retailers looking to influence consumers’ shopping habits and buying decisions, Modiv Media orchestrates relevant retail messages and improved shopping experiences at exactly the right moment in exactly the right place. Modiv Media’s multi-touch platform delivers consumer-convenient media through in-store self-service solutions and on-the-go shoppers’ mobile phones. Unlike other retail media companies, Modiv Media removes the complexity out of providing the right offers and ads, delivery timing and self-service solutions when consumers are at their “moment of decision” with what, where and when to buy.
With Modiv Media’s multi-touch platform, consumers benefit by saving time and money with self-service options and instant product information, specials and rewards, while retailers can boost operational efficiencies, loyalty and sales. Retail leaders such as Stop & Shop, Giant Eagle, Ukrop’s and SUBWAY rely on Modiv Media for measurable ROI gains.
Modiv Media has received several accolades: 1st place at the Wireless Emerging Technologies Award at CTIA WIRELESS 2006; Gold Star Award in Mobile Marketing/CRM Category at MobileVillage’s 2006 Mobile Star Awards; GEM Award for Best Systems and Programs; Innovation Award from the Global Mobile Marketing Association; and the 2005 Global Retail Technology Award for Best In-Store Innovation.
Modiv Media Inc. is privately held and based in the Boston area. To learn more, please visit www.modivmedia.com.
