Degree Transforms Subway Signages Into Sweat Confessions

New York's subway platforms just admitted that some of these stations are furnaces in July.

Degree partnered with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority this summer to temporarily rename several of the city's most notorious subway stops.

It swapped in the names sweltering New Yorkers had given them: West 4th Street became "Sweat Central," while Union Square turned into "Boiler Room."

Commuters also deemed Herald Square as "Molten Core."

None of it was invented in a brainstorm.

New Yorkers had been joking about the subway heat on social media for years, and Degree's brand partnership with the MTA simply gave the joke official signage.

"People joke about the heat, crowded platforms and even switching cars to find air conditioning," said Chris Symmes, Degree's head of marketing, in an interview with LBB.

The goal wasn't to write a new line about the commute, but to put an existing one somewhere people would see it.

As Symmes puts it, it's one thing for an ad to talk about a hot commute, another to "see 'Sweat Central' while you're actually standing on the Union Square platform in July."

The Rides Do the Talking

The mosaics were made to sit inside the station's existing tile work.

This is important for a category where the underlying claim that a deodorant stick holds up under real conditions can feel abstract without a place to prove it.

Grounding the message in a platform full of people who are actually sweating gave the product something concrete to answer to.

This is also where the second layer of the campaign comes in.

Degree distributed x MTA sticks redeemable for free subway rides starting in August.

Station selection followed its own logic.

The team wanted names people would recognize instantly, and Symmes said the chosen stops "all capture something familiar about the summer commute."

Just as important was staying inside the lines of what the partnership could support.

"Our goal was to celebrate that shared experience, not make the MTA the punchline," Symmes said.

Degree is touting the whole effort as an extension of its brand messaging of having confidence in tough conditions, with the station takeovers acting as proof.

When Local Slang Becomes a Media Buy

By renaming stations after actual New Yorker slang, Degree was able to convince commuters it was one with them.

Here's what marketers can take from this one:

• Borrowed language beats invented language: Degree didn't coin "Sweat Central," but gave the existing term a wall to live on.
• Transit is earning its media spend: Transit was the fastest-growing out-of-home segment for a second straight year, up 9.2% annually, according to OAAA data. A joke on a platform reaches people who can't skip it the way they'd skip a feed. 
• A free ride removes the last excuse not to try the product: Sampling usually asks people to change behavior, but this one asked people to do exactly what they were already going to do and get paid for it in fare.

All in all, campaigns like this work when the brand is willing to let the city's own commuters write the punchline first.

Our Take: Who Actually Took the Risk Here?

The part nobody's talking about is the MTA.

A deodorant brand poking fun at a hot commute costs Degree nothing because it's an easy joke to tell about someone else's system.

A transit agency agreeing to let a station be called "Molten Core" is a public agency admitting, in writing, that its own trains run like a furnace.

We don't see government partners sign off on jokes at their own expense very often, and that's the more interesting deal buried in this campaign.

Degree gets the punchline.

The MTA gets the exposure and agreed to it anyway, which is why it deserves just as much praise as the deodorant brand.

This trade is worth watching the next time a brand goes looking for a transit partner.

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