Subway launches equally delicious vegan meatballs

CLIENT

Subway UK & Ireland

DISCIPLINES

Consumer, Digital & PR

Dominating the ‘Veganuary’ conversation with Subway’s new Meatless Meatball Marinara.

This January, Subway challenged us to help them cut through the noise during the busiest month for vegan launches.

Whilst many new vegan products fall short of their flavourful meaty counterparts, Subway’s Meatless Meatball Marinara holds the trump card – it’s just as tasty as the original Meatball Marinara Sub.

We saw the opportunity to re-engage the 16 – 24 year old audience with a seriously good vegan meatball, so we went full guns blazing on creating a campaign baked full of talkability.

Piers Morgan riled up on Good Morning Britain. Job done.

We launched our campaign with a hilariously irreverent spoof video showing how Subway grows their vegan meatballs – because they can’t really be that tasty without a little secret something, right?

Meet Arthur, Subway’s meatless meatball grower, who lovingly cares for each and every meatball produced, before tenderly hand-picking them at their perfect point of ripeness.

We weren’t finished there though. We decided to take the equally delicious Meatless Meatballs to one of the UK’s most famous meat markets and test the nations most discerning meat palettes!

Our video at Kirkgate Meat Market in Leeds captured the surprise and confusion as meat eaters were told the delicious balls they were munching on were completely meat free!

We achieved a staggering 21% engagement rate, with a campaign reach of 46m across our social channels. We landed blanket coverage in national and consumer media, culminating in a brilliant spot on the BBC’s The One Show. We generated enough conversation, controversy and coverage that we even managed to get Piers Morgan, the top vegan naysayer, to talk about it on Good Morning Britain. Job done!

Subway saw a significant uplift in sales and footfall as a result, and the Meatless Meatball Marinara is now available for meat-eaters and flexitarians alike to enjoy all year round.