Dive Brief:
- Subway Restaurants, sans CMO since the summer, has added former Coca-Cola exec Joe Tripodi as its new global CMO.
- Triopodi spent more than seven years as chief marketing officer for Coke.
- Previous Subway CMO Tony Pace left this summer to start his own marketing firm soon after disgraced former spokesman Jared Fogel was hit with a child pornography scandal.
Dive Insight:
After months of the seat gathering dust, Subway has named a new chief marketing officer – Joseph Tripodi, formerly CMO at Coca-Cola. Tripodi will handle Subway’s global marketing; corporate social responsibility; product quality and food safety; public relations; and research and development.
Tripodi said in a statement, "I'm thrilled to join Subway at this exciting time in the brand's history. As consumers tastes evolve, I want to build on Subway's legacy of innovation to ensure we are always leading in our marketing, product offerings and consumer engagement strategies."
Tripodi’s job comes with some immediate reputation management duties after Subway has weathered the public downfall and 15-year federal prison sentence of longtime spokesman Jared Fogel.
Shortly after the scandal broke, Patrick Hillman, a vice president at Levick Communications, a public relations firm that specializes in crisis management, told Marketing Dive, "if Subway effectively manages through this crisis, history proves that the overarching effect on their bottom line and brand reputation is likely to be minimal."
Meanwhile, according to BAV Consulting, a research branch of WPP that tracks consumer sentiment, Subway’s brand value has dropped 17% this year after the Fogel scandal.
Anne Rivers, managing director at BAV, told the Wall Street Journal, “People think the brand is less trustworthy, less socially responsible and less friendly.”