Much has been made about the prep and the execution of Blake Griffin's award-winning Kia soaring dunk on Satrday night in Los Angeles. And while the dunk put another exclamation point on what has been an amazing rookie year, perhaps the biggest winner in execution on the night was Subway, who used their first-time partnership with the Clippers rookie to really extend their brand with a great ongoing viral campaign.
The successful sandwich brand has leveraged personalities from Jared Fogle to Michael Strahan to Joe Torre over the years to enhance their team and property partnerships, each time finding unique ways to put their spokesperson in a unique light with a challenge, a new execution or to introduce a new product, especially one that promotes a healthy lifestyle. This time Subway took a bit of a chance by leveraging the electrifying and athletic star in a full blown viral campaign and hoping that he succeeded in taking the Slam Dunk title. he did not disappoint, and as a result Subway's challenge paid off.
The promotion is simple, hit the well trafficed website www.subwaydunkfresh.com, select one of Griffin's practice dunks and then drop yourself, via webcam, Facebook or jpeg, into the head shot while Blake does the dunk. The result is a great viral keepsake for fans, as well as a way for Subway to generate leads, couponing and a larger digital footprint. The social media aspects give fans the ability to share their funky self-made images and post them on their own home pages. Who knows, maybe down the line Subway can even arrange a select meet n greet with some of the winners. Regardless, the promotion is the next step for Subway in their aggressive brand identity program with athletes. Griffin is a hot new property and they were smart to get in early with a program, and even smarter to leverage the excitement around the All-Star Game to formally roll out the program. It won’t be the rising star's last promotion, but it certainly was one of note for a brand that always seems to find itself a bit ahead of the curve in its partnership vision with athletes.
