Transforming the Marketplace

Subway

2016 Progress Report

Year Committed: 2014

Length of Commitment: 3 years

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Promote healthier choices to kids, including launching a kid-targeted marketing effort that will deliver $41 million in media value in over three years with a specific focus on increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. Set and implement new marketing standards to kids, and only offer items on its kids menu that meet strong nutritional guidelines informed by federal standards for the national school lunch program, including offering apples as a side and low-fat or non-fat milk or water as a default beverage.

Verified Results

Implementation Date
May 2014
Reporting Date
July 2016

Commitment Element
Assist the selection of fruit with Fresh Fit for Kids™ by: • Providing training for franchisees for staff to ensure they are prompting customers to get apples from the cooler, and • Placing messaging on kids’ meal bag that promotes fruit selection
Progress To Date

Subway provided instructions to crew members to remind customers to grab apples out of the cooler on a poster that was displayed in all US restaurants.
Implementation Date
May 2014
Reporting Date
July 2016

Commitment Element
Publicize policy with regard to marketing to children, such that any advertising on children’s programming or targeting children will meet Subway’s established criteria for kids’ meals.
Progress To Date

Subway had a section on its website stating its policy with regard to marketing to children. The policy stated that any advertising on children's programming will feature Subway Fresh Fit for Kids™ meals, which meet specific nutrient criteria, and that all advertising will show the kids' meals with a mini low-fat sandwich, apple slices and low-fat milk.
Implementation Date
January 2014
Reporting Date
July 2016

Commitment Element
All graphic depictions of the Fresh Fit for Kids™ meals will include a fruit offering and vegetables, as well as the low-fat white milk or water beverage option.
Progress To Date

Graphic depictions of Fresh Fit for Kids™ meals portrayed in-store (e.g., on door decals, signs, menus) and on digital media outlets (e.g., Subway website, Subway Kids website, promotional emails) submitted by Subway included vegetables, fruit and low-fat milk.
Implementation Date
May 2014
Reporting Date
July 2016

Commitment Element
In television advertisements promoting Fresh Fit for Kids™ meals, continue to focus on child empowerment to encourage all children to pile on the vegetables.
Progress To Date

Television advertisements geared toward children depicted children consuming Fresh Fit for Kids™ meals and encouraged children to choose the toppings they want, while featuring fresh vegetable options.
Implementation Date
December 2014
Reporting Date
July 2016

Commitment Element
Employ its social media properties to further promote its healthy kids meals and vegetable consumption. This will include DAI’s Facebook account with over 25 million followers and its Twitter account with over 1.6 million followers.
Progress To Date

Subway used social media outlets Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote healthy kids meals and vegetable consumption. As of August 2016, it had 25.5 million Facebook likes, 2.4 million Twitter followers and 362k Instagram followers.
Implementation Date
May 2014
Reporting Date
July 2016

Commitment Element
Include messaging on its website that promotes vegetable consumption.
Progress To Date

Subway's website promoted vegetable consumption and encouraged children to pile all their favorite veggies on their subs, along with the PHA logo.
Implementation Date
January 2016
Reporting Date
July 2016

Commitment Element
Execute a marketing and advertising campaign specifically targeted to children. This campaign will focus on raising awareness of the importance of eating healthy and adding fruits and vegetables and will deliver a media value of $41 million.
Progress To Date

A summary of Subway's media campaign showed that funds have supported in-store, digital and social media components totaling $22 million and garnering over 3 billion impressions. To date, Subway has dedicated over $68 million to marketing and advertising healthier choices to children, exceeding their commitment.

Partner Statement

“We’re glad to offer families, and kids in particular, a more nutritious fast food alternative. Guests visiting a Subway® restaurant can work with a Sandwich Artist™ to have a delicious sandwich or salad made to order, right in front of them, with the ingredients they pick from a wide variety of fresh veggies, quality meats and freshly baked breads. With each kid’s meal at a Subway® restaurant you get 1 serving of fruit and up to ¾ cup vegetables. We’ve also made nutritional information readily available on our US menu panels and on Subway.com. For 52 years, we have been committed to offering our guests the best quality and best tasting food, and we continue to improve. We serve only chicken from animals raised without antibiotics. Our Subway products are free of all artificial flavors and colors from artificial and we’ve removed artificial preservatives wherever we can.”