Joel Veitch's Spong Monkeys Quadruple Traffic for Quiznos

Martin James 10/08/04

The radical spong monkey Web and TV ads created by Joel Veitch of rathergood.com, which feature strange creatures with human eyeballs and human mouths announcing their love of toasted subs (a type of American sandwich) have provoked more than 30,000 calls and e-mails and quadrupled traffic on Quiznos' site.

Responses to the ads "run the gamut, from 'You rock!' to 'You're out of your minds,'" according to Kerry Feuerman, vice chairman and creative director for the Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia. The agency worked with Joel Veitch, the Spong monkeys' creator, to put together the ads.

"I've not had so much response to a campaign in 24 years," Feuerman said.

Traffic on Quiznos' site zoomed to 575,000 unique visitors when the TV ads launched in February, according to comScore Media Metrix. This is more than four times the number of unique visitors to Quiznos' site the previous month, January, which saw 129,000 unique visitors.

Joel Veitch, the creator, has seen a huge surge in his career thanks to the ads' success. He has now completed a series of music video shows for Channel 4 in Britain and is now working on a commercial for a bank card, also in Britain.

"The Quiznos ads definitely were a fantastic thing for my career- there's no doubting that. I was in a bar in New York a couple of weeks ago -- first time back over since the ads went out. Those ads came up in conversation and the whole bar started screeching 'WE LOVE THE SUBS!' at me. I was somewhat taken aback to be honest," Veitch said.

The responses to Quiznos are running about half in favor and half against, Feuerman said. The people who don't like the ad define what the mysterious creatures are, with descriptions such as "road kill," he said. "Those who like the ads are asking, "What are those creatures?"

The new creative campaign is completely unexpected…even for Quiznos. “The first time you see the advertisement, you might ask yourself, “What exactly was that?” Our intent was to grab the consumers’ attention. By the second time you see it, we guarantee you’ll be singing along,” said Quiznos Chief Marketing Officer, Trey Hall.

The creative continues the “mmmm…. toasty” theme that characterizes Quiznos Sub’s identity, and is an inflated reflection of just how passionate and crazy customers are for their favorite toasted Quiznos sub. The monkeys, who are the main characters in this ad, are not your typical spokespersons. They are maniacs who are so hooked on toasted subs that they created a rockin’ tune just for Quiznos called, “I Love the Sub.”

“Quiznos is well known for its creative, unique and off-speed advertising,” said Hall. “There is definitely an element of humor in this ad for those who like to be entertained by commercials. It’s quirky. It’s random. It’s #catchy. But at the core of the ad is a message that we found resonated most with our consumer… their passion for toasted subs,” said Hall.

We certainly agree that even if they didn't have a reputation for 'creative, unique and off-speed advertising' before, they do now, and seeing the transition from internet sub-culture icon to mainstream TV of Joel Veitch has certainly raised some eyebrows here at British Internet News.

The spong monkeys first surfaced online about five or six years ago, together with the Punk Kittens. "This kind of thing was one of the earliest viral phenomena online, not these specific characters, but this style of animation has been popular ever since people were starting to use Macromedia and Flash," said Marc Schiller, CEO of viral marketing firm Electric Artists.

Joel Veitch became a well-known creator of the creatures without having a particular commercial purpose in mind. Via an e-mail from a friend, one of Veitch's creations ended up in the hands of a worker at the Martin Agency. In a stroke of what Schiller calls genius and some might call temporary insanity, the agency created an ad modeled on the Spong monkeys and presented it to Quiznos when auditioning for the account.

Many of Joel Veitch's creations are available on the rathergood.com site (see link below) and are well worth spending some time watching, although some do push the boundaries of good taste.

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