Quizno’s had a really cool ad a year ago. It was based off of the Moon Song video. Those of us in the know when we saw it, loved it. Here was a company embracing my demographic’s area of entertainment so much so that they were willing to look like freaks of nature by airing such a weird and out there commercial… which was an adaptation of something weird and out there.
Well, it appears 11 months later Subway has responded (I think). This may be old news to some, but keep in mind I live out in a remote area. I was asked if I wanted my sub “toasted”.
“…sure!” I replied with a slight start and an attenuation at the end of my response. I had never been asked that before, although I eat Subway at least once a week. Upon asking when they started doing it, they lady replied, “…about a month ago, nationwide. It’s in response to Quizno’s.”
‘In response’? It takes you 11 months to install toasters into Subway stores nationwide, and instruct the personnel how long to leave a sandwhich in it? Can I bungie jump using the red tape? It just goes to show how successful a good sandwhich can be with little marketing. They’d p@wn if their response time was faster, and they went on the offensive.
Subway’s site title starts with “Official” whereas Quizno’s starts with their name. Quizno’s has Flash on the front page too, whereas Subway does not.
Anyway, the sub was good toasted.
Have you ever seen the head Subway guy Fred DeLuca (I think) speaking, he seems to be very much into doing things nice and slowly, not too greedy, maybe that’s why they are so slow on the response time :p mmm toasted s/w’s
Having said that Subway is also owning the UK at quite some speed, McDonalds is dying quicker than an obese clown with a hole in its belly, shame a 6′ costs the eq. of $7 :((
I saw him speak on a documentary of globalization of restaurants we watched in my marketing class at school. I didn’t really pay attention, but if that is what he’s like, than it makes sense. I can see the risks, because ‘toast’ is eerily close to ‘fry’, which has horrible connotations of unhealthy, true or not, so I could see how someone like him would be very hesitant on something like adding a toaster to the mix now that you put it that way.
well, Subway was very quick to respond to the Atkins craze. perhaps one of the first major chains to do that, i think. that whole crap was SO big, and Subway was already on about losing weight, that they just went with it.
the toasted thing on the other hand, probably went through some sort of test market first before rolling out company-wide, which is perhaps why it was slower.
however, they still haven’t figured out how to work the toasting machines here – the only thing it did when i tried it was slightly melt the cheese and make the crust brittle and fall off. :-\ certainly no Quiznos!
i think it was funny too that right around the time of the Quiznos spongmonkey ad, all the singing/dancing kitten promos for VH1 were playing. some lucky Flash animator was making BANK! ;-)
g.