One reason is simply the amount of advertising Subway places on an annual basis. Subway spent $516 million on advertising in 2012, putting it among the top 25 United States brand advertisers across all categories for the year.
The only other restaurant chain among the top 25 U.S. brand advertisers for 2012 was suburban Oakbrook, IL.-based McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), which could do no better than 16th place on Technomic's list of restaurant chains with the most effective advertising. That may not be particularly good news for McDonald's in-house marketing team or the fast food behemoth's two lead ad agencies, DDB/Chicago and Leo Burnett/Chicago.
Technomic posited that another reason for the effectiveness of Subway advertising is its choice of successful athletes as brand endorsers, including swimmer Michael Phelps, speed-skater Apolo Ohno and gymnast Nastia Liukin. Though Subway was not an an official Olympic Games sponsor, the restaurant chain nonetheless featured those athletes in its advertising in the lead-up to the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games.