Commentary

Surprise, Surprise. Chuck E. Cheese Gets New CMO And Launches Agency Review

by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 23, 2015

This is getting so tired. New CMO joins brand. CMO, in an effort to prove his or her worth, trashes current agency and launches review, thereby proving that whatever the previous CMO had in place sucked and the new solution is far superior. It's like a broken record. Oh wait, half of you have no idea what a record is. Anyway, the whole thing is like predicting an apple will fall if you drop it.

So what's the latest CMO-fueled shenanigan? In January, Michael Hartman joined Chuck E. Cheese as chief marketing officer. Previously, Hartman was senior marketing officer at Seaworld. Yeah, probably a really good move for Hartman, given the crap that brand is facing these days. But back to the agency review.

Sources tell AdWeek the brand has launched a creative agency review. But the source everyone really wants to hear from, Hartman, isn't talking. Mums the word I guess. It's as if it's some sort of national security secret that will topple the entire world of marketing if any one were, God forbid, to become privy to the inner dealings of an agency review.

Currently, the account is handled by The Richards Group. But...wait for it...no one from The Richards Group is talking either. Last year, the brand spent $28 million on media, according to Kantar Media.

agency review

4 comments about "Surprise, Surprise. Chuck E. Cheese Gets New CMO And Launches Agency Review".

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Steve Ratti from The Ratti Report, April 23, 2015 at 8:11 p.m.
New CMO do signal a possible change in agency but as a guy who tries to acutually predicts account reviews (and we get many right) just a new CMO won't do it. There has to be other factors to push it over the edge. I think they weren't paying Richards enough for the work. Now you have a pitch!
Reply

Jim Meskauskas from Media Darwin, Inc., April 24, 2015 at 9:27 a.m.

Old news, actually. Pitches have already been submitted.

Michael Hubbard from Media Two Interactive, April 24, 2015 at 11:01 a.m.

I don't know the particular case here - but most times a CMO is fired for performance reasons, and the current agency was aligned with that persons thinking. So why is it a shock that when a new CMO comes in with different thinking that he'd want different thinking from his agency, and just maybe a different agency aligns better. There's always been this theory that a CMO has an agency in their back pocket and they bring them wherever they go - but I don't know, if mine just got me fired for not deliverying the ROI, I'd think I wouldn't be too tight with them. Or - maybe that's why a CMO tenure is so short. Either way - agree it's not really news - but I think a lot of these shorts are for making fun of our industry and not meant to be thought provoking anyway :)

Josh Stone from DailyVista, April 24, 2015 at 4:28 p.m.

It's nothing new. There are many variables (we track 16 with an 82% success rate) that push higher the likelihood of an agency review occuring within an 18-month period. CMO shifts are weigthed the highest, but other factors determine how soon a review will begin. For example, in Chuck E Cheese's case two additional variables (we call triggers) are that it was taken private by a new owner last year and a new CEO joined last summer. There's other factors here, as well, but those three are the biggest indictators.