The brand is more known than felt
Subway, once the world's most ubiquitous sandwich chain, has arrived at a rare moment of institutional self-reckoning — acknowledging not that it is unknown, but that it is unfelt. Under a new CEO and with a restructured marketing leadership now focused on regional rather than global command, the company is dismantling the architecture of its recent past in search of something more elusive: the emotional permission consumers grant only to brands they genuinely care about. The restructuring is less a business story than a philosophical one — about the difference between presence and meaning, and whether a brand can rediscover its soul through strategy alone.
- Subway's own agency brief delivers a damning self-verdict: the brand is 'more known than felt,' a quiet crisis hiding behind decades of name recognition.
- The chain shed its global CMO role entirely, hired a US-only replacement with roots at Popeyes and Little Caesars, and reshuffled agency relationships — all within a compressed window of urgency.
- Store closures tell the structural story: from over 27,000 U.S. locations in 2015 to fewer than 19,000 today, with 730 shuttered in 2025 alone and sales down 5.7 percent.
- Jersey Mike's is named directly in the agency brief as the primary competitive threat — a signal that Subway is losing not just traffic but the premium perception battle in its own category.
- A $10 million creative review and a new Omnicom media partnership represent the company's bet that the right agency combination can rebuild cultural relevance, particularly with younger and Hispanic consumers.
- Subway's first-ever value menu and a push for long-term brand platform thinking — rather than campaign-by-campaign advertising — mark the fragile early steps of a comeback that has yet to prove itself.
Subway is dismantling its global marketing structure and rebuilding it around a single, uncomfortable admission: the brand has lost the ability to make people feel anything.
The company parted ways with its global CMO after little more than a year and replaced him not with another global leader, but with Jeff Klein — a veteran of PepsiCo, Little Caesars, and Popeyes — hired specifically as US CMO. The global role no longer exists. CEO Jonathan Fitzpatrick, in place since July 2025, has reorganized the company around regional markets, a structural shift that signals how seriously leadership views the disconnect between Subway's scale and its cultural weight.
The agency landscape shifted just as dramatically. Omnicom won Subway's media and CRM accounts, displacing Dentsu's Carat. Simultaneously, Subway launched a $10 million creative review for its US business, putting the account held by Leo New York since April 2025 back into competition.
The clearest window into Subway's crisis is the document it sent to prospective agencies. The chain describes itself as generating neither emotional resonance nor brand differentiation — a striking confession from the tenth-largest restaurant chain in the country. Measured media spend fell from $242 million in 2024 to $208 million in 2025. Sales dropped 5.7 percent to $8.97 billion. And the store count, which exceeded 27,000 US locations a decade ago, now sits below 19,000 after 730 closures in 2025 alone.
The competitive pressure is specific. Jersey Mike's is named in the brief as the primary threat, gaining momentum and premium positioning in the very category Subway invented. The broader quick-service landscape — McDonald's, Taco Bell, Jimmy John's — compounds the pressure from every direction.
What Subway says it needs is not a campaign but a platform: a coherent, long-term brand story built around value, convenience, and genuine deliciousness — qualities that should be self-evident but have apparently become invisible. The company also wants cultural fluency in Hispanic markets embedded into creative work from the start, not added as an afterthought. It is betting that the right leadership, the right agency, and the right story can restore something that balance sheets cannot easily measure: the feeling that Subway still matters.
Subway is tearing down its global marketing structure and rebuilding from the ground up, a dramatic admission that the sandwich chain has lost something essential: the ability to make people feel anything about its brand.
The company parted ways with Greg Lyons, its global chief marketing officer, just over a year into his tenure. In his place, Subway hired Jeff Klein—a marketing veteran who spent years at PepsiCo, led Little Caesars, and most recently ran marketing at Popeyes—but not as a global leader. Klein is now chief marketing officer for the United States only. The shift reflects a fundamental strategic pivot by Jonathan Fitzpatrick, Subway's CEO since July 2025, who dismantled the global CMO position entirely and reorganized the company around regional markets instead. David Skena, who had been CMO for North America, moved into a different role focused on strategy and commercialization.
The internal restructuring is matched by wholesale changes in agency partnerships. Omnicom won Subway's media and customer relationship management accounts after a competitive review, taking over from Carat, which is part of Dentsu. More significantly, Subway launched a creative review this week for its U.S. business—a $10 million account that covers creative work and social media. Leo New York, from Publicis Groupe, has held the creative account since April 2025, but the company is now shopping for alternatives, with the search being conducted by SRI.
The root cause of all this upheaval sits in a document Subway sent to prospective agencies. The company's own diagnosis is stark: "Subway is not generating emotional resonance or brand differentiation; the brand is more known than felt." That sentence captures the crisis. Subway has name recognition—it is the tenth-largest restaurant chain in the United States—but it has become functionally invisible in the way that matters most to consumers. The chain's measured media spending in the U.S. fell from $242 million in 2024 to $208 million in 2025, according to MediaRadar. Sales dropped 5.7 percent in 2025 to $8.97 billion.
Subway's competitive position has deteriorated across multiple fronts. The chain faces pressure not just from other sandwich shops—Jersey Mike's is identified in the agency brief as the primary threat, gaining momentum and premium positioning—but from the entire quick-service restaurant landscape. McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy's continue to dominate traffic and volume. Newer competitors like Jimmy John's are building loyalty around speed and convenience. Meanwhile, Subway's store count has collapsed. The chain operated more than 27,000 U.S. locations in 2015. Today it has fewer than 19,000. In 2025 alone, Subway closed 730 restaurants.
The agency brief reveals what Subway believes it needs to survive. The company wants to rebuild brand meaning for a new generation of quick-service restaurant consumers by crafting a clear, ownable story about why Subway specifically is the right sandwich choice for someone living a busy life at a fair price. The company launched its first-ever value menu in late April and is betting that pricing and accessibility can anchor a broader cultural comeback. But the brief acknowledges a deeper problem: recent advertising has operated campaign by campaign rather than building a coherent, long-term brand platform. The company needs to convince both existing and new customers that Subway is delicious, convenient, and accessible—three things that should be obvious but apparently are not.
Subway is also prioritizing expertise in Hispanic markets, but not as a translation function. The company wants cultural capability built into the work from the ground up. It is seeking a large-scale agency with the bandwidth to manage six marketing windows plus test markets, with senior creative leadership that stays engaged throughout the relationship rather than pitching and disappearing. The company is betting that the right combination of leadership, agency talent, and strategic focus can restore what it has lost: the feeling that Subway matters.
Notable Quotes
Subway is not generating emotional resonance or brand differentiation; the brand is more known than felt.— Subway's agency brief
The advertising has been functioning campaign by campaign instead of building an ownable, long-term brand platform.— Subway's agency brief
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did Subway need to blow up its entire marketing structure? Couldn't they have just fired one person and moved on?
Because the problem wasn't one person. The company had a global CMO trying to run marketing for every market the same way. Subway's real issue is that it's competing in dozens of different places against dozens of different competitors, and a one-size-fits-all approach was making it invisible everywhere.
But they hired Jeff Klein as the U.S. CMO specifically. That's still just one person, right?
Yes, but now he's focused entirely on the largest market. He's not splitting attention between America and thirty other countries. He reports directly to the North American president. The structure says: this market matters enough to get its own dedicated leader.
The brief says Subway is "more known than felt." What does that actually mean in practice?
It means people know Subway exists. They can name it. But when they're hungry, they don't think of it. They think of Jersey Mike's or Jimmy John's or McDonald's. Subway doesn't trigger any emotion or desire. It's just there, like a utility.
How does a sandwich chain lose emotional connection? Isn't food inherently emotional?
Food is, but Subway stopped telling a story about why their food matters. They've been running individual promotions—a free footlong after three purchases, a movie tie-in—instead of building a coherent reason for people to care. The brief actually says that directly: they've been doing campaign by campaign instead of building a platform.
And the agency changes? Why does that matter if the problem is strategic?
Because you can't execute a new strategy with the same people who were executing the old one. Omnicom and the new creative shop need to come in without the baggage of what didn't work. Plus, Subway is explicitly asking for senior creative leadership that stays engaged. They're saying: we need partners who will actually think about this, not just execute what we tell them to do.