How Penn Station turns 37 creatives into 300 ads

Category introduction

Sandwich shops are a crowded corner of American fast food. Subway is still the biggest by far: QSR Magazine's 2026 ranking puts its 2025 US sales at $9.2 billion across 18,773 units, though it lost 729 units in the year. Jersey Mike's is the fast climber, with $4.2 billion and 3,227 units, 238 more than a year earlier. It listed on the NYSE in July 2026. Jimmy John's, part of Inspire Brands, has $2.7 billion and 2,777 units.

Most of these chains are franchised. That shapes how they advertise. A franchise brand has two customers: the guest who eats the sub, and the person who might open the next shop. Both can be reached on Meta.

Penn Station is much smaller than the three chains above. Its competitors have the budget to run hundreds of ads. It has to get more from each idea.

Brand introduction

Penn Station East Coast Subs started in Cincinnati in 1985, founded by Jeff Osterfeld. It now has more than 320 locations across Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina and Michigan. It sells grilled-to-order cheesesteaks, cold subs, fresh-cut fries and lemonade. In 2025 it opened 4 restaurants, sold 15 more franchise units and said same-store sales were up in seven of the last eight months of the year.

In March 2025 it hired Jane McPherson, previously of Capriotti's, as head of marketing. Its Instagram account has about 20,800 followers, so our reading is that the paid ad is a main way a new guest meets the brand.

Summary

Penn Station does not make 300 ads. It makes a few creatives and places them many times. Our reading is that this is a deliberate franchise-system habit: build one template, keep it simple enough that anyone can reuse it, and let the media plan decide where it shows up.

The second half of the plan is the audience split. The same account sells a $7.99 sandwich-and-fries deal to guests and a 50%-off franchise fee to would-be owners. Both are price-led offers. Both use the same bold, one-line style.

Problem statement and objective

This is our reading of the ads, not a brief Penn Station has published. The problem looks like this. A mid-sized chain with units in seven states cannot out-spend Jersey Mike's, yet it must keep ordering and franchise sales moving. It has few creative resources and many local markets.

The objective that follows: get guests to order in the app or on the site, give them a reason (a clear price), and keep a second stream of franchise leads open without a second ad system.

Execution: what the ads actually do

We read 288 of the 300 live ads on 25 September 2026, downloaded every attached media file, and compared the files byte for byte. The 288 ads hold 352 files. Only 37 are different from each other. Video repeats most: 156 video files collapse to 10, and 196 image files collapse to 27.

One headline field, three jobs

The 37 creatives split by what the headline says.

Source: Meta Ad Library, United States, read 25 September 2026. Counts are of the 37 distinct creatives, grouped by headline. Days live is the run time of the ads that carry them; all were still live when we read them.

One photo, many headlines

Most still ads reuse two photos: a sub with fries and a cup, and three subs in a row. Only the headline changes: “Go with your gut.” “Double down on flavor.” “Feed your craving.” Our reading is that this is cheap, safe and easy for local owners to reuse. It is also why 37 is a ceiling on variety, not a measure of it.

The same ad, 300 ways

Of the 288 ads, 204 started on a single day, 24 August 2026, and 236 started in August. Meta shows the ad text for all of them: 123 are headed “Satisfy Your Craving!” and 109 “Big Flavor. Perfect Pairing. $7.99.” We cannot see the targeting from outside, so we do not say who each copy was aimed at. What we can see is that one launch day produced most of the library.

Nearly every click goes to ordering

269 of the 288 ads have an “Order now” button. 232 go to one ordering page, 23 to ordering links tagged for the cheesesteak and 14 to links tagged for Penn Pairs. The other 19 carry a “Learn more” button and go to the home page or a Facebook short link; the franchise ads we checked are among them. The strategy fits in one line: tell people the price, then send them straight to the till.

Polished, product-first, almost no people

Of the 37 creatives, 30 are studio-made and 7 are semi-pro. 28 show the product as a clean packshot. In 36 no person is visible. 34 open with a bold claim and all 37 are a straight pitch. The brand barely uses creators in paid ads; that looks like a choice for a consistent look across a franchise system.

What the competition is doing

Both rivals run the same product pitch with more people and more calendar in it.

Source: Meta Ad Library, United States, read 25 September 2026. Jersey Mike's decoded from 150 ads, Jimmy John's from all 41. Counts are creatives, not ads.

Jersey Mike's: more people, one star sandwich

Jersey Mike's has the biggest library and the most variety. 40 of its 168 creatives show a person, 17 look like user-made footage, and it names a single hero sandwich: “Get the Mike's Hot Italian” heads 15 ads, with a regular priced at $8.95. It also ties to the football season (“Football and no leaving the couch” heads 14 ads). On Instagram, one recent post asks “anyone else hear danny devito as soon as they enter jersey mike's?”, so culture sits next to the offer.

Jimmy John's: a small library, one season

Jimmy John's has only 41 live ads, and 18 of them share the headline “Make game day savory”. Of its 48 creatives, 16 are motion graphics and 43 are studio-made. It also sells catering, which Penn Station's ads do not mention. Its library is small enough to read at a glance, and it is organised around one moment, not one price.

Subway

Subway is the shadow over the whole category, but we have not decoded its ad library, so we make no claim about what its Meta ads look like.

What other brands can take from this

• Count creatives, not ads. Penn Station looks like it runs 300 ads. It runs 37 ideas. Measure a competitor's real effort that way before you copy their volume.
• Build a template you can reuse. Two photos and a headline line carried 18 of 37 creatives. That is cheap to make and easy for local teams to use.
• Put a number in the headline if the number is good. $7.99 for a sub and fries is easy to say yes to. Only 8 creatives use it, so it stays a focused offer.
• Run a second audience from the same account. 11 of 37 creatives speak to owners, not guests, and these have been live the longest.
• Add people if you want range. One creative in 37 shows anyone. Jersey Mike's shows people in 40 of 168. That gap is where a smaller chain could differ.