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Subway on how it plans to use Liverpool deal to get 'everyday people more active'

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King Binny

Part of the Furniture
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[article=http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/food-and-drink/subway-on-how-it-plans-to-use-liverpool-deal-to-get-everyday-people-more-active/4010251.article]Subway hopes to use its sponsorship of Liverpool Football Club, announced today (23 April), to push its growing Low Fat subs range and help “everyday people get more active”. Marketing Week spoke to Subway’s European regional marketing director on the thinking behind investing to become the Premier League leaders’ official training food partner.

What links Subway with the English Premier League?
Subway has been committed to encouraging active healthy lifestyles for the past couple of years and we’ve signed famous names such as [British boxer] Anthony Ogogo and [British gymnast] Louis Smith to talk about this in advertising.

Over the past year we’ve been looking to help get everyday people more active. Our sponsorship with Liverpool FC and particular its youth foundation is an extension of that work we have already done in the UK and will help us take this to a higher level.

Liverpool FC have had a very successful time at the moment but this was not around picking a particular English Premier League team as such - but we really believe in the work they are doing with their youth foundation as it really connects with what we are doing.

What was the attraction to Liverpool FC - was the club chosen because of its recent run of form?
No, not at all. We have been talking to them for a number of months - the discussions actually started last year. These things take time as we had to make sure it was right for us.

From our perspective we were really impressed by the club’s ongoing youth activity and their strong commitment to getting youth active.

The timing was great but we have been discussing it for a while.

What kind of sponsorship activations can we expect to see from Subway next season?
We want to engage with people around our “train hard and eat fresh” messaging and get that across to the wider community too. Our ambition is to work with grass roots community football across the UK and Irish market.

This partnership provides us with access to the foundation and to the players. We have committed to helping Liverpool’s youth foundation, delivering Low Fat Subs to participants but also to [Liverpool FC] players after they train and when they go on to the game.

You’ll also see Subway branding around LED [advertising boards inside Anfield], the Liverpool magazine and online. And going forward we will be working with Liverpool FC on how we can get everyday people active.

What makes a fast food chain like Subway think it can encourage people to become more active?
We have already started doing it. We began our 5k run series a few years ago. There were six events in the first year and we were up to 13 last year, which had a huge amount of participants, who were everyday consumers.

I think we can make this really big. We have our Low Fat range and famous fans talking about it which adds a credible side to our communications about it to the public. It shows that if you can eat this food when you are training then it must be good.

We have a commitment to exercise and nutrition and we want to get that message out there. Over the past two and a half years we have been able to show we are a credible voice in this area - it’s not just something that popped up out of the blue.

Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator for the Sustain Children’s Food Campaign, said while your Liverpool partnership was a “step in the right direction” compared with the club’s Dunkin’ Donuts deal, Subway’s messaging around healthy lifestyles is mixed because much of your in-store communications [such as cookies being placed next to the till] highlight high in sugar or fat choices. What would you say in response to such criticism?
In response, of course we offer choice when you go in-store. But we clearly show the low fat options, with the Heart Research UK emblem, low fat symbols and calories next to them to make it clear to customers.

From an advertising perspective, there’s hardly any cookies on our menu boards - yes they are next to the cash registers - but it’s more about the range of subs on offer. Our [advertising for our] value lunch deal shows a bottle of water [as the drink choice] and there is heavy promotion of low fat subs in-store.

From 2010 to 2011 we saw an 11 per cent increase in sales of Low Fat subs because we were promoting them heavily in store.

If you look at our Kids range, we have recently reformulated that to show a Low Fat sub and a Capri Sun - which is one of your five a day - or a bottle of water and a toy. We are deliberately persuading consumers to make healthy choices.

How will you evaluate the success of your Liverpool sponsorship?
Like any campaign we will evaluate locally using the usual brand trackers. In terms of understanding how many more people became more active: we had 7,000 people take part in our 5k run series last year and we would like to think this will help us improve those numbers.[/article]
 
[article=http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/disciplines/sponsorship-/-experiential/subway-signs-liverpool-sponsorship-deal/4010245.article]Subway has signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Liverpool FC that will see the sandwich chain become the Premier League leaders’ “Official Training Food partner”.

Under the deal, Subway branding will appear around the perimeter boards at Anfield and the brand will have access to Liverpool FC brand assets such as striker Daniel Sturridge and club logo for above the line and in-store marketing and competitions.

Subway will also feature during Liverpool’s community engagement programmes and the chain has kicked off the relationship by sending its range of Low Fat Subs to participants on Liverpool FC’s Foundation programmes this week.

The terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it is understood to be in the region of £1m to £2m. It has been confirmed the partnership will run over multiple years and that it does not mean Subway will become the food partner at Liverpool’s training ground.

Subway will be hoping the partnership will strengthen the wider “Train Hard and Eat Fresh” marketing programme it embarked on in 2012, which has seen it create a series of ads starring British gymnast Louis Smith. Last month, as it launched a campaign featuring characters from Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted movie, Subway told Marketing Week it plans to “shout louder” about its health credentials.

Manaaz Akhtar, Subway European regional marketing director, says of the Liverpool partnership: “As a brand, we are committed to supporting everyone to be more active in their everyday lives and our partnership with Liverpool FC provides us with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate this and take it to the next level.”

Liverpool’s recent success in the Premier League, where the club is currently five points clear of closest rivals Chelsea, is timed well with Subway’s aggressive UK expansion plans. The fast food franchise plans to open 3,000 additional stores by 2020. Subway currently has 1,769 stores in the UK, 31 of which are in Liverpool.

The Subway partnership becomes the latest in a series of deals Liverpool has signed this year with brands including Dunkin’ Donuts and Vauxhall.

Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator for the Sustain Children’s Food Campaign, which previously criticised Liverpool’s tie up with Dunkin’ Donuts but said the Subway partnership is a “step in the right direction” because the deal focuses on the franchise’s low fat products.

But he added: ”It’s an improvement [on the Dunkin’ Donuts deal] but this is not going to win Liverpool the healthy stadia of the year award. It’s going in the right direction if they are tying with the low fat ranges but when you get into store, what else is Subway promoting: [it’s the cookies and sweet options by the till].

”It would be great if Liverpool win the title this year to set themselves a goal to be champions of healthy eating too.”

Nigel Currie, director of sports marketing and sponsorship at Brand Rapport, says more Premiership football clubs are now following the lead of Manchester United, which has been creating a wide range of sponsorship opportunities across different categories and territories to boost its revenues.

He adds: “The problems that Manchester United face currently will present great opportunities for the other top clubs to not only enjoy success on the pitch but success in terms of developing their marketing partners. Liverpool are ideally placed to take advantage of this - a huge global brand in football that has not enjoyed regular success on the pitch in the last 20 years.”

Indeed, recent turmoil at Manchester United on the pitch - which has seen the sacking of manager David Moyes after less than one season and the club lose out on a lucrative Champions League place - means the club may need to explore additional revenue streams at the risk of diluting the brand in the long term. [/article]
 
What the fuck is an official training food partner, god our commercial department is good at spinning this bullshit.
 
I've been seeing Pele in the Subway ads here in the States, wouldn't mind seeing Suarez and Gerrard alongside him.
 
i remember watching one of those documentaries on fast food in the States and Subway were doing a promotion somewhere with a poster boy of their's. He was a big fat lad once upon a time who lost loads of weight and claimed he did it by eating just subway . So he was chatting to this obese mother and her 12 yr old daughter. The young girl was balling her eyes out cause she wanted to lose weight and stop getting bullied but they couldn't afford Subway everyday . And the fuck never comforted her or told her she didn't need Subway to lose weight at all . It's sad that people are that uneducated and gullible to think these companies care about and want to help them .
 
i remember watching one of those documentaries on fast food in the States and Subway were doing a promotion somewhere with a poster boy of their's. He was a big fat lad once upon a time who lost loads of weight and claimed he did it by eating just subway . So he was chatting to this obese mother and her 12 yr old daughter. The young girl was balling her eyes out cause she wanted to lose weight and stop getting bullied but they couldn't afford Subway everyday . And the fuck never comforted her or told her she didn't need Subway to lose weight at all . It's sad that people are that uneducated and gullible to think these companies care about and want to help them .

hahaha
 
I got a foot long subway sambo yesterday... Ate half, put the other half in the fridge for today... Just opened the firdge and some cunt nicked it... I'm gonna blame Mourinho - Cunt.
 
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