Distinctive Crave Assets (DCAs)
Cravings for Subway’s iconic Subs were in decline…which spelled a problem in a category where craveable food is everything.
The Brief
Get a nation who has fallen out of lust with Subway to salivate over Subs by getting forensically specific about what makes a Subway sandwich craveable.
The Insight
The most craveable brands all have what I term, ‘Distinctive Crave Assets’. Think of the moment in every Magnum ad when the protagonist bites into the tempered chocolate shell with a deep satisfying ‘crack’.
The Execution
Following the neuroscience principles of excitation and attention, I identified the sensory signifiers of freshness and/or caloric content that the senses are instinctively trained upon.
I then translated these into four multisensory Distinctive Crave Assets: FRESH, WARM, WEIGHTY and “CHEESE AND TOASTED?” and these have been peppered throughout AV spots ever since.
The Results
UK Crave scores immediately jumped 7%.
“Great piece of work. I am a huge fan of the DCA workstream. It’s rare to see a piece of research/theory still being referred to on paper and during shoots months on. That’s when you know the piece of work nailed the brief!”
—Louise Wardle, International CMO, Subway