Subway has a deal with NBC to sponsor the "Subway Overtime Intermission Report" during NHL games, and with two out of the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final going into overtime, the QSR "got high-level product placement across two intermission reports," according to Michael McCarthy of AD AGE. Subway CMO Tony Pace called the deal a "calculated risk," as the QSR only receives exposure when games go into OT. But McCarthy noted this is the third year in a row Subway has "agreed to sponsor the intermission report" on NBC and NBCSN. Pace is "considering a fourth year next season if the price is right." There have "already been 25 overtime games" during the '14 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which is "just three short of the record 28" set in '93. Viewers during this year's playoffs "have seen the Subway logo in front of and behind NBC hockey announcers Mike Milbury, Keith Jones, Liam McHugh, Bill Patrick and Jeremy Roenick during sponsored intermission reports." Subway also stuck its name and logo "on digital scoreboards, banners and bumpers going in and out of commercial break." Meanwhile, Subway has "been airing traditional TV spots" during Stanley Cup Playoffs telecasts. Pace: "Even if there had been no overtimes in the Stanley Cup Final, we had gotten so many of these before the Stanley Cup Final, that we were well ahead in terms of the calculations you make" (ADAGE.com, 6/10). See the full sponsorship portfolio for Subway at Resource Guide LIVE.
