Media Case Study
When Firehouse Subs hired us, their business was anything but on fire. Sales had been on the decline in recent years despite expanding their franchise network.
With their rapidly growing restaurant footprint, a huge disparity existed with the maturity of each market. New and less established markets were struggling to find success against competitors already entrenched in each market – competitors who were outspending Firehouse on a five to one scale. Subway alone was investing 16 times more in media.
In the past, Firehouse Subs relied heavily on broadcast. But we knew if we were going to win in this highly competitive space, we were going to have to take a different, more focused approach.
We knew that in order to be part of their daily meal decision times, we’d have to use multiple media channels. We also knew that mobile phones are our target’s primary tool to research and make restaurant decisions. And that guests will only drive 8-10 minutes for a sandwich. To further focus our plans, lunch represented the strongest return on investment.
To build a plan that delivered 70% of impressions within the restaurants’ trade radius, we used a complementary media mix of national cable television, terrestrial radio, streaming video, connected TV, mobile display, paid search, and social. We deliberately tailored each channel to drive the most efficient and effective visits to Firehouse Sub restaurants.
We conducted foot-traffic measurement through third party services to measure how each channel is driving restaurant visits. Across streaming video, connected TV, and mobile, there are more than one and a half million visits per quarter attributed to our media activity. That number has increased every quarter as we continue to optimize the campaign.
Mobile cost per store visit improved 92% in just a single quarter. And by segmenting YouTube audiences and optimizing toward those that were converting to in-store customers at the DMA level, Google campaigns saw a 420% increase in store visits year over year, with a 50% reduction in cost.
But how did that shift in media strategy impact the most important metric of all, sales? In one year, Firehouse Subs sales have grown 6.2% and transactions have increased 6.9%. With the second highest average unit volume growth in its 24 year history – all while the industry’s sales are flat and visitation is declining.
Firehouse Subs, a restaurant founded and owned by first responders, is hot again.
Client:Firehouse Subs