Chuck E. Cheese’s Seeks New Creative Agency

Chuck E. Cheese's is looking for a new creative agency to revive the fortunes of the faded pizza arcade brand, sources said.

The Irving, Texas chain spent $28 million on media spending in 2014, according to Kantar Media. Most recent reports have the account handled by The Richards Group, Dallas, but reps there haven't responded to an inquiry.

In January Chuck E. Cheese's brought in a new chief marketing officer, Michael Hartman, who was previously senior marketing officer at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.

When reached by Adweek, Hartman declined to comment on the agency review.

In addition to Richards, the brand has also worked with several agencies in the past, including Zambrelli for TV advertising, M/C/C for social media marketing and Apollo Interactive for website development.

Founded in 1977 by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Chuck E. Cheese's was the first family restaurant to integrate food with entertainment and arcade games. (It has continued to use its namesake animatronic mouse mascot as a fixture in ads.) In recent years, the chain has also had the dubious distinction in the media for curious outbreaks of violence at its stores, including an incident last in month in Ohio where patrons beat employees.

While Chuck E. Cheese's has done little to change with the times, it nonetheless has strong millennial brand awareness and had grown to 577 outlets as of March, 2014.

Chuck E. Cheese's is owned by CEC Entertainment, which was bought by an affiliate of turnaround investors Apollo Global Management last year, for about $950 million.

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Droga5, Morgan Spurlock Show You How the Toyota Mirai Is ‘Fueled by Bullsh*t’

Toyota wants you to know it has a car that literally runs on bullshit.

This new ad for the automaker's Mirai fuel cell vehicle features an engineer visiting a dairy farm, loading a pickup bed with cow manure, taking it to be processed into hydrogen and using it to power a ride.

Directed by Morgan Spurlock, the ad is the first in a series titled "Fueled by Everything." Created by Droga5, the campaign hopes to persuade consumers that hydrogen cars are a viable alternative to internal combustion engines, despite a skeptical marketplace—hence the ad's mix of folksy and defensive. (Ron the farmer's cool demeanor casts doubt on his sincerity at moments, but there are some real action shots of heifers unloading.)

A small number of Mirais go on sale in California this fall, and Toyota's tack is to point out the abundance of fuel—not just crap, but also sunlight, wind and more—presumably in part because a leading criticism of the technology is the shortage of hydrogen stations. One doesn't follow the other, but Toyota is working with other car makers to develop infrastructure in the Golden State.

It's not clear though, whether drivers will be able to bring their own manure.

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Check Out this YouTuber Making Some Insane Trick Shots With Oreo Cookies

Showing crazy trick shots is a pretty good way of getting viral video views, as we've seen in branded efforts from Wheaties (bowling), McDonald's (soccer)—and of course, that old, fake-as-hell Michael Jordan and Larry Bird ad "Nothing But Net."

Now there's a new kid in town, Peter Bamforth—a YouTuber who makes "videos about anything and everything." But he's particularly adept at trick shots. His "EPIC Ping Pong Trick Shots" video from 2011 got 300,000 views.

And now, he's returned with more trick shots—starring Oreo cookies.

It's a pretty impressive feat, not only because of the level of inventiveness in materials, but also for the patience this kid must have. Check it out below.

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There Are Big Disconnects in This New ANA Survey of Marketers and Agencies

A new Association of National Advertisers survey of marketers and agencies reveals (perhaps not too surprisingly) little harmony and much discord.

While marketing and agency leaders agree that agencies are valuable to marketers and help drive business results, they differ on how well they work together, the clarity of assignment briefs and the quality of the ad-approval process.

Specifically, just 27 percent of agency leaders polled found marketer briefs to be clear, compared to 58 percent of the marketers. Similarly, only 36 percent of the agencies were satisfied with how marketers approve ads, versus 54 percent of marketers, according to the ANA.

As you might expect, the biggest disconnect was in compensation. Nearly three-quarters of clients (72 percent) described their agency compensation as fair, while only 40 percent of the agencies agreed. 

As ANA President Bob Liodice acknowledged, "There are disturbing legacy issues that continue to plague the partnership that have been further complicated by blossoming transparency concerns." He added that the ANA is "committed to making tangible improvements and will be working in partnership with the 4A's to actively address those issues."

In all, the ANA polled 126 marketer executives and 105 agency honchos in its survey, which took place in January and February. Fifty-eight percent of the agency respondents work at full-service agencies, 23 percent at creative-only agencies, 12 percent at media shops and the remaining 7 percent are specialty players.

The full survey is available to ANA members.

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SapientNitro Named British Airways’ Digital Lead Agency

This time SapientNitro won the prize. The Publicis Groupe agency has been named the digital lead for British Airways, business previously handled by OgilvyOne.

Last year SapientNitro emerged as a review finalist when the U.K. flagship airline retained long-time agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty after a six-month global creative search. In the current review, BBH also competed for the digital business, along with DigitasLBi and We Are Social. 

The global digital assignment includes key British Airways markets like the U.S., U.K., China, India and Europe. The airline's digital spending couldn't immediately be determined, but the brand spends around $100 million annually on its marketing communications.

"We are confident that SapientNitro will offer us great ideas, insight, the ability to apply strategy practically, a strong reputation in the industry and a good fit with the British Airways brand," Sara Dunham, British Airways' head of marketing, retail and direct, said in a statement.

In November, Publicis announced a $3.7 billion all-cash offer for SapientNitro, with the deal closing on February 6 of this year.

 

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Ad of the Day: Gun Violence PSA Makes Heartbreaking Statues From Victims’ Clothes

Eight victims of gun violence are memorialized in lifelike but faceless plaster statues in FCB Chicago's "The Unforgotten," a traveling public-service installation and media campaign.

Created for the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, the campaign recruited artists who took pains to imbue each statue with as much of each victim's personality as possible by studying gestures and body language from family films and photos. The figures are dressed in the victims' actual clothing. They wear sweatshirts, jeans, scarves and sneakers. Some carry backpacks. One figure slings a guitar because it was modeled on a young musician who was fatally shot while helping his band unload their gear. The statues' name tags work with a mobile app, allowing users to access videos about the victims' lives.

"This cause desperately needed an unusual approach," says FCB Chicago creative chief Todd Tilford, "something shocking to compel people to take action, while at the same time honoring the victims, and the families and friends of the victims. Not in a loud, screaming way, but in a powerful, silent way."

The initial exhibit was held April 10 at Chicago's St. James Cathedral Plaza, and Tilford says plans are underway for the installation to visit other cities in Illinois and possibly around the country.

The three-minute campaign video features interviews with family members and shows the statues posed in parks, on sidewalks and in bus shelters. The clip closes by asking viewers to "Help us get guns out of the wrong hands. Unforget the victims and sign our petition at The-Unforgotten.org." The campaign hashtag is #Unforgotten.

Mannequins have been effectively deployed in recent PSAs about the homeless and people with disabilities. The figures created for "The Unforgotten," while similar to mannequins, achieve a haunting, visceral presence owing to their level of personalization. The absent faces remind us that human beings lost their lives—clothing and artifacts are all that remain.

Tilford believes these surreal specters transcend blood-soaked category clichés, and refutes the idea that the approach might be a tad too abstract or esoteric.

"While the memorial statues were artistically designed, they went far beyond being 'artsy,' " he says. "How do we inspire real change? What if we could bring some of the victims back to tell their stories? That's what we did. We did something different."

CREDITS
Client: Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence
Agency: FCB Chicago
Chief Creative Officer: Todd Tilford
Group Creative Director: Chuck Rudnick
Art Director: Jordan Sparrow
Executive Creative Producer: John Bleeden
Creative Producer: Rachel Chapman
Film Director: Ben Flaherty
Account Supervisor: Ky Anderson
Group Management Director: Karyn Kerner
Senior Strategic Planner: Hayet Rida
Director Experience Planning: Katie Swindler

PR Agency: Current – Lifestyle Marketing and Public Relations
President: Virginia Devlin
Vice President: Alexis Valenti

Production Company: Lord + Thomas
Executive Producer: Katie Roach
Executive Producer: Jared Stachowitz
Senior Editor: Steve Immer
Copywriter: Anthony Williams
Group Creative Director: Derek Sherman
John Skibicki: Lead Developer

Experiential Agency: FCBX
Management Director: Marty Kane

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WPP’s Q1 Revenue Was Up 8%, but Holding Company Expects a ‘Demanding Year’ Ahead

The ad industry's largest holding company said its first-quarter profits for 2015 are "well above target" but admitted, "2015 looks to be another demanding year."

WPP Group's reported revenue rose 8 percent in the first quarter to just over $4 billion, with like-for-like revenue, which eliminates the impact of currency and acquisitions, climbing 5 percent. Last month WPP said like-for-like revenue in January increased nearly 7 percent, indicating a slowdown in more recent growth.

WPP posted like-for-like revenue growth in all of its operating regions and business sectors, with the exception of data investment management. The company saw "particularly strong growth geographically" in the U.K. and Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe. Among its business practices, WPP's major growth increases came from advertising and media investment management; direct, digital and interactive; and healthcare.

The company reported a like-for-like growth of 7 percent growth in the first quarter of 2014, a year that was boosted by spending on soccer's World Cup. While WPP now predicts the pattern for 2015 will look similar to 2014, this year lacks quadrennial events like the World Cup and Winter Olympics to boost marketing investments.The company is forecasting full-year revenue growth of more than 3 percent as opposed to 2014, when WPP said reported revenue rose almost 5 percent to $17.4 billion.

"Following the group's record year in 2014," the company said in its current earnings statement, "2015's first quarter top line growth has been reasonably above budget, particularly given that worldwide (gross domestic product) growth … has slowed in the second half of last year and the first quarter of this year."

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