How Jersey Mikes Marketing Strategy Evolved To Include Danny DeVito
After a deliberate slump in 2020, Jersey Mike's restarted its marketing machine in 2021 with the return of its signature Giving Month campaign, taking place in March to raise money for local charities. In 2022, the company became a sponsor of the Special Olympics USA Games.
Both were big hits, prompting the company to return to its normal pace of activation. Jersey Mike's hired new Chicago-based agency Highdive to "give it a little push," according to CMO Rich Hope, who describes the agency as "a very creative little business that believes in humor."
This humor department is new territory for the sandwich chain.
"We tend to take a conservative approach," Hope said in a recent interview. "We had some funny moments ready before the pandemic and convinced everyone that a little humor can be good for brands, but Covid is sabotaging it."
Highdive regularly exploits celebrities, and Jersey Mike's doesn't stop there. During the presentation to managers, the agency received Danny DeVito's attitude and received a positive response.
"The great thing about Danny is that he appeals to a wide audience," Hope said. "I watched the film at home with my wife, young child and mother-in-law - ages 18 and 88 - and my mother-in-law said she loves Danny DeVito because he's so funny. My youngest calls him GOAT and says he's the funniest guy in Sunny Philadelphia. I think maybe we have something here.
The DeVito ad ran in September and Hope says it increased sales and brand awareness. Jersey Mike checks this metric against what he calls a "sandwich score."
"We can talk about sales, but sales in 1980 and sales in 2023 are very different things," Hope said. “But you can count how many loaves of bread you got from the store. That's the measure of sustainability we use."
That being said, Mike's Jersey rolls have increased "significantly" since September and have remained at higher levels ever since.
"The number of loaves has increased, which means there are more transactions," Hope said, noting that transactions are up 7% this year and about 5% last year. Meanwhile, awareness is up about 8 points, he said, adding that DeVito appealed to Jersey Mike's broader audience without detracting from the brand's menu.
“The beauty of Highdive and these places is that they understand that we are selling a product and let the product be the star. Danny gets the message across, but the stars of our ads are our fresh toasts and cold cuts - when Danny says it, things come alive. I think it's brought in a lot of new customers," Hope said.
However, Jersey Mike's continues and builds on its proven track record of success in sports marketing and philanthropy. For example, last month the company signed an agreement with the NHL, earning sponsorship from a professional sports league for the first time. The deal gives the network exclusive marketing and broadcasting rights to the regular season and playoffs of the Stanley Cup. It also has partnerships with Power 5 conferences, esports organizations, the Thursday Night NFL, and several Major League Baseball teams.
“We salute physical education colleges and wanted to create them first. We started in 2014 with seven campuses strategically located across the country, and today we have over 50 Division I programs that work with football and basketball," Hope said.
Sports activism generates huge returns for brands — typically 4-10 times more than advertising fees, Hope added.
"If [New York Yankee] Aaron Judge hits a home run over our field mark and this game runs 20 times on SportsCenter [ESPN], that would be it for us," he said.
This type of activation evolved as the company grew. When the company began buying national advertising in 2014, about 1,300 restaurants opened and expanded nationwide. There are now around 2400 locations in the system. Metaphorically, Hope described Jersey Mike's marketing strategy as lasagna.
“If you look at our marketing program, you will see that this is more of an evolution than a revolution. Due to increasing sales and the same number of branches, we were able to increase the budget. Everything contributes to that foundation and I always look at it like a giant lasagna and just keep adding layers and layers to the program," he said. "We didn't buy more layers, we made them thicker."
That means an increase from seven to 14 to 50 college football teams. That means going from three music festivals to five with live performances in the Jersey Mike trailer. That means digital and social experiences, marketing and sponsorships alongside the network's signature charity campaigns, like America's Give and Feed Month. And that means humor and learning about famous people. The main goal is to reach as many different people as possible.
"There are so many niches in marketing right now and so many additional ways to connect with people, and each new way is becoming more and more fragmented, so you have to work in those niches," Hope said. “We're a food brand, which means our audience is very diverse, particularly between the ages of 25 and 55. They can target certain demographics and not others, and some brands do it very, very well. But we're trying to be an American sandwich, and we want to please everyone."
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected].
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