Subway, the world’s largest restaurant chain, and Tastemade, a modern media brand inspiring the taste of a generation through entertainment, commerce and experiences, announced a strategic partnership Tuesday to leverage consumer trends and insights to drive innovation and bring good food to people around the world. The unique, first-of-its-kind partnership will include thematic culinary explorations, data-driven menu inspiration, trend intelligence, global insights, and marketplace innovation.
Subway’s partnership with Tastemade represents a truly global collaboration that will create a stronger food innovation pipeline and points of cultural connections for consumers. By tapping into Tastemade’s network of hundreds of tastemakers, Subway will reach people in every corner of the globe in new and engaging ways and leverage insights on how to create more locally-relevant menus to deliver a more contemporary food experience.
“Global innovation is key to driving our brand forward, and we are disrupting the way we’ve traditionally managed the process, which includes bold new strategic partnerships like the one we’ve crafted with Tastemade,” says Len Van Popering, Subway’s VP of Global Brand Management & Innovation. “Through its global network of tastemakers and rich data-driven insights, Tastemade has its finger on the pulse of how people interact with, think about, and are influenced by food—and through this partnership, those insights will be embedded in Subway’s food innovation around the world.”
With over 2.5 billion monthly video views, and studios/channels in seven countries/languages, Tastemade has developed a large and engaged millennial audience by creating compelling video programming optimized for today’s leading platforms. The company’s Tastemakers live and work in dozens of countries that overlap with Subway’s global footprint of about 44,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries.
“Every day, we use data and insights to create compelling content for our viewers across all digital platforms around the world. We are thrilled to be able to tap into years of consumer trends and insights in a new way, to help fuel real innovation for Subway,” adds Oren Katzeff, Global Head of Programming at Tastemade.
The partnership will include curated innovation events, food and flavor trend insights, and joint food development with today’s consumer front and center. The global collaboration will focus initially on North America and Latin America.
