Category: Retail (Incl. Restaurants)
Advertiser: QUIZNOS
Product/Service: LOBSTER SUB
Agency: VML
Chief Creative Officer: Debbi Vandeven (VML)
Group Creative Director: Travis McElhany (VML)
Creative Director: Kyle Taylor (VML)
Associate Creative Director: Derek Anderson (VML)
Senior Art Director: Travis Kleiner (VML)
Art Director: Eric Thompson (VML)
Associate Art Director: Chi Hiu Yim (VML)
Media placement: Quiznos Facebook Profile Takeover - https://www.facebook.com/Quiznos - 15 April 2011
Media placement: Website Homepage Takeover - https://www.Quiznos.com - 15 April 2011
Media placement: NO PAID MEDIA FOR THIS PROMOTION - NO PAID MEDIA FOR THIS PROMOTION - NO PAID MEDIA FOR THIS PROMOTI
Describe the objective of the promotion.
At a high level, our objective was to remind people about the one-of-a-kind sub sandwiches offered by Quiznos and entice them to come back in for a taste. More specifically, our task was to spread the word about Quiznos’ new limited-time offer, the Lobster Sub, in a fun, engaging and shareable way. Fortunately, Quiznos chose to offer a coupon for the sub. Unfortunately, there wasn’t paid media to support coupon distribution.
Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation.
When we discovered the lobstering tradition of throwing back some of every catch to protect the lobster fishery (and bring good luck), that’s when we our solution: Quiznos would throw back some lobsters too. So we rescued our first lobster, named Larry, and streamed a live feed of his tank to loneliestlobster.com. From there, we used social media functionality to put fans in control. The more coupon downloads, ‘likes’ and tweets we received, the more lobsters we sent home to the waters of Maine. And the more lobster subs people ate — ironic, we know.
Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service.
Quiznos became famous for campaigns that were weird for the sake of being weird. We wanted to honour that irreverence but build the promotion on solid ground, which we found in an old lobster fishing tradition. Suddenly, the irony of eating lobsters and saving lobsters seemed OK. Quiznos was simply following fishing tradition. When it came to execution, the live lobster video stream was both fun and functional. Not only did it keep people entertained, it made them question, ‘Is the sub made with real lobster?’ The answer was yes, earning Quiznos points for quality and many curious lunch goers.
Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results.
In just a few weeks, viewers spent more than 1.1m minutes watching our live lobster stream, which led to an average time on site of more than 7 minutes.
With social functionality seamlessly integrated into the promotion, news spread quickly. As a result, coupon prints, Facebook ‘likes’ and tweets totalled more than 150,000 from 10 different countries.
But most importantly, thanks to a few lucky lobsters and the power of social media, same-store sales climbed to a 4-year high.