Submitted by Fabulate

Driving 2.1M Organic Views and a 6.44% Engagement Rate for Subway's Hot Honey Launch

Influencer Marketing

Fabulate ran a creator-led UGC campaign for Subway's Hot Honey Chicken limited time range in Australia, reporting 2.1M total organic video views across the work.

2.1Mtotal organic video views
6.44%average organic engagement rate
131K+total likes
18.7Kfavourites
1.9Kshares

Case in 60 seconds

Subway was launching its Hot Honey Chicken limited time range into a crowded fast food market, and the brief ran twofold, building awareness and trial of the new flavour while reigniting value perceptions through combo offers.

The campaign appears to turn on the reading that Gen Z and Millennial Australians discover new food through social feeds rather than traditional advertising, because discovery there rewards flavour hype and visual payoff over a brand claim.

The organizing thesis was that the content had to look like something a viewer would save, share or send to a friend, so creators were briefed to build crave in seconds rather than explain the product.

Fabulate partnered Subway with a mix of food and lifestyle creators who produced crave led UGC spotlighting the sweet heat flavour profile and the value driven combos, with content built to be visually punchy, high energy and instantly recognisable in feed. One post shown on the page is an ASMR treatment from @jojoasmr carrying #ASMR, #subway and #ad, which runs as native feed content rather than as a conventional advertisement.

Fabulate reports 2.1M total organic video views and a 6.44% average organic engagement rate, alongside 131K+ total likes, 18.7K favourites, 1.9K shares and 1.1K comments across the creator content.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Younger, social first audiences, described by Fabulate as Gen Z and Millennial Australians who discover new food through social feeds and respond to flavour hype and visual payoff.
Fast food launches compete for attention in a category where every brand announces a new flavour, so a limited time range has to earn notice through social discovery rather than through the advertising conventions younger audiences skip.
Subway carried two problems at once, awareness of an unfamiliar flavour and a value perception that needed reigniting, which is why the combo offers sat inside the same creator content rather than in a separate push.
Subway supplied the product and the offer while creators carried the message, so the brand appears in the work as the source of the flavour rather than as the voice making the claim.
Based on the available evidence, the campaign treats saving and sending as the behaviours that precede trial, because content passed to a friend arrives with a recommendation the brand cannot buy.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • TikTok

Partners

  • Fabulate (lead_agency)

Creator role

  • jojoasmr — creator

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult type
total organic video views2.1M total organic video views , driving strong awareness at scalevideo_views
average organic engagement rate6.44% average organic engagement rate , outperforming typical organic benchmarksengagement_rate
total likes131K+ total likes , signalling strong crave appealperformance
favourites18.7K favourites , indicating save worthy contentperformance
shares1.9K shares , extending reach organicallyreach
comments1.1K comments , driving conversation and social proofperformance

Why Fabulate's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Saves and shares read as the clearer signal of crave appeal on a food launch, because a favourite or a send records an intention to return to or pass on the item rather than a passing view.

  2. 2

    A limited time offer gives creator content a deadline the audience can act on, which is why flavour led launches suit formats built for immediate reaction rather than sustained brand storytelling.

  3. 3

    Carrying a flavour message and a value message inside the same creator content lets one campaign serve two briefs, though the figures Fabulate publishes sit at campaign level rather than split between them.

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