How Subway Increased Franchisee Engagement 81% with a New Communications Platform
Gravitas partnered with Subway to replace a legacy intranet serving 350K+ users. The new SaaS platform delivered 81% higher engagement, $2M in recurring savings, and 703K views in its first week.
The Challenge
Subway’s communications site served 350,000+ franchisee users across 37,000 locations in 100 countries. But the platform wasn’t working, hard to search, difficult to navigate, and riddled with defects that took months to fix. On-premise hosting drove up tech-support costs on a system that wasn’t delivering.
Gravitas partnered with Subway to select and implement a new SaaS-based communications platform, led the change management strategy across the full franchisee network, and launched a reimagined experience that changed how Subway communicates with its operators.
Key outcomes: 81% increase in franchisee engagement. $2M in recurring savings from SaaS migration. 703,000 views within the first week of launch.
Our Approach
Together with Subway, we identified what needed to change across three areas: ease of use, smarter search, and content tailored to regional and international audiences — all with minimal IT overhead to maintain.
We helped select and implement a SaaS-based communications platform by Interact Software, replacing the legacy on-premise system.
Given Subway’s scale — 37,000 locations across 100 countries — the technology was only half the challenge. Without a focused change management strategy, the new platform risked inheriting the same adoption problems. We partnered with Subway to lead change management and training across the full franchisee network, ensuring the transition stuck.
Outcomes
“This re-platforming project was a labor of love that was, crucially, powered by user feedback. It’s a game changer in many ways,” said Rafael Sangiovanni, Director of Multimedia on Subway’s Communications Team.
“There’s been so much excitement about the re-launch, and we’re thrilled to continue evolving the site.”
Interact Software, a leader in intranet solutions, played a crucial role in creating this user-friendly platform, while Gravitas provided strategic insights to shape "The Feed" into a vital asset for Subway.
About Gravitas
Gravitas partners with QSR, retail, and consumer brands to drive growth, improve profitability, and execute transformation at scale.
Through a combination of senior advisory and proprietary platforms such as Laminar™ and Growth Hero™, we enable leadership teams to move from strategy to execution with speed, visibility, and discipline.
See how we applied a similar approach to franchise lead qualification at Blaze Pizza:
Accelerating Franchise Growth with AI-Driven Lead Qualification
Ready to Improve Franchise Operations and Communication?
If you are scaling a QSR brand and looking to improve franchise operations and collaboration, we can help.
KEY OUTCOMES
81%
increased user-engagement
$2mn
recurring savings from SaaS migration
703k
views within 1st week of launch