Dive Temporary:
- Firehouse Subs is bringing again its complimentary Sizzling Sauce Bar and asserting its return through a advertising marketing campaign, in line with an organization launch.
- The advertising marketing campaign will embrace three nationwide TV commercials, social media, out-of-home billboards and digital promoting. As well as, a choose variety of eating places will likely be adorned with a plaque proclaiming “I Introduced It Again” to acknowledge the tremendous followers who led the cost to reestablish the Sizzling Sauce Bar.
- The return of the QSR chain’s 13-sauce condiment bar comes after a four-year absence. The chain eliminated the function from its eating places in March 2020 because the pandemic hit however has introduced it again after important fan backlash.
Dive Perception:
In case you haven’t heard, spicy is in. Certainly, 85% of Individuals now use sizzling sauce of their meals, in line with a nationwide survey from Wired Analysis cited by Firehouse Subs, and, as such, the chain is returning to the motion.
The Sizzling Sauce Bar’s return is being heralded with a multichannel advertising marketing campaign that features a business depicting a pair consuming dinner at a flowery restaurant. Upon realizing the restaurant doesn’t have a sizzling sauce bar, the patron will get upset, in the end demanding entry to “at the very least” 13 flavors of sizzling sauce to make use of at his discretion. He finally tries to guide the remainder of the patrons in a chant demanding sizzling sauce to his date’s apparent embarrassment.
“Over the previous few years, we have heard from numerous company on social channels, by e-mail and even by handwritten letters begging for the return of our Sizzling Sauce Bar,” said Dena vonWerssowetz, Firehouse Subs’ chief advertising officer, in a launch. “Our followers are passionate and this complimentary addition of the Sizzling Sauce Bar delivers a personalized, flavorful expertise that continues to be unmatched.”
The Sizzling Sauce Bar options 13 sauces, every labeled with a warmth scale from one to 10. The flavors vary from a Datil Pepper Sauce that boasts a refined sweetness and tangy kick to a Sizzlin’ Scorpion sauce that options scorpion and habanero peppers. The lineup additionally contains acquainted manufacturers, together with Tabasco, Frank’s Purple Sizzling and Cholula. The sauces may be added inside the restaurant and requested in on-line orders.
Earlier this yr, Firehouse Subs adopted a multi-agency roster mannequin to deal with its advertising because it seemed to realize better scale and stand out amid an more and more crowded QSR sandwich market. The roster now contains Orchard, which handles lead inventive duties, and Omnicom’s PHD, and its data-driven Omni platform, for media. Different appointments embrace High quality Meats (dealing with activations and partnerships), 500 Levels (in-restaurant merchandising and on-premise experiences), Jones Knowles Ritchie (design) and ICR (public relations).
Firehouse Subs, which has been owned by Restaurant Manufacturers Worldwide (RBI) since 2021, opened its first areas outdoors North America final yr and is now trying to carry the model to the Center East. RBI noticed system-wide gross sales improve 5.0% year-over-year in Q2 2024, with Firehouse Subs notching 3.3% development.
