SUBWAY Announces Canadian "Jareds"

BY: 

Dave Forde
October 27, 2011

SUBWAY Restaurants of Canada officially announced the two winners of its national Commit to Fit Ambassador Search yesterday. The search marks the biggest, fully-integrated marketing program SUBWAY restaurants of Canada has ever done. The new faces of SUBWAY’s online Commit to Fit 2012 program are Courtney Belanger of Milton, Ontario and Carl Savard of Terrebonne, Québec, who have been named the company’s first official English and French consumer brand ambassadors in Canada.

Taking a cue from its American counterpart and its widely publicized weight-loss success story of SUBWAY US spokesperson Jared Fogle, the Commit to Fit search launched in June 2011. To find the two ambassadors to help the brand fuel Canadian’s balanced, healthy and active lifestyle with SUBWAY, Jared conducted media tours in six cities across Canada to rally submissions, challenging Canadians to “Random Acts of Fitness” in exchange for $5.00 CAD SUBWAY cards, pictures and autographs. The campaign resulted in 1,161 submissions from Canadians eager for a chance to become the Ambassador and win $10,000 cash.  The Canadian public was encouraged to vote for their favourite candidate among six finalists promoted on the campaign microsite and Facebook page.

The integrated campaign featured an advertising blitz of TV, print and digital execution in both English and French. This included advertising on health-related sites operated by Rogers Media, AOL and Sympatico, placement in Best Health magazine and Séléction du Readers Digest, a TV spot and banner ads with pre-roll with Jared. The digital component included blog content, online resources—like the interactive Nutrimeter online tool that instantly calculates the nutritional value of each sandwich— and social media. Expert blogs offered advice on fitness and maintaining a healthy lifestyle from a nutritionist, personal trainer and wellness coach.

Campaign results include:

  • 1,161 ambassador search submissions over an eight-week entry period (821 English and 340 French)
  • 30,883 votes
  • Over 28.5 million media impressions
  • 414 million digital impressions
  • An increase in Facebook “likes” by more than 1500%
  • A 9300% increase in website visits in English and 5880% in French in the first week alone
  • 8,700 mobile visits.

The Montreal agency KBS+P developed the creative for the campaign, with the media buy handled by the Toronto and Montreal offices of Carat. In addition to the $10,000, both Courtney and Carl will receive $500.00 CAD in SUBWAY  cards and have their images on SUBWAY websites.

Update: Veritas Communications was the lead agency on Commit to Fit providing strategic direction.

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Dave Forde


Dave “The Connector” Forde has been involved in the marketing, public relations and technology industry across Canada for over 20 years in various sales and marketing roles, he launched The Connected One network of business sites which connects buyers to the right sellers. Profectio and PR In Canada covers news about the marketing and public relations industry each day helping professionals advance their career and businesses. He also serves as an advisor to a number of businesses across the country. Find Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter.


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