Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Calendar

At CEC Entertainment, we build careers around great food, family, and fun! Our purpose and our passion is to create the best place for kids and families to eat and play!

Job Description

CEC Entertainment, the global leader in family entertainment and operator of Chuck E. Cheese® and Peter Piper Pizza® restaurants, is seeking a marketing “unicorn” to serve as Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Calendar for the Chuck E. Cheese brand.

Chuck E. Cheese has been the leader in the family entertainment dining category for over 44 years.  As the first brand to combine entertainment, gaming, and dining, the brand has hosted more than 1 billion guests and is the largest arcade in the world.  Chuck E. Cheese has 472 locations in the United States and 98 franchised locations worldwide.  Hosting more than 500,000 birthday celebrations each year, Chuck E. Cheese is committed to creating lifelong memories for families through fun, food, and play as the only place Where A Kid Can Be A Kid®.  

The Position:

The Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Calendar provides leadership for Creative (agencies and internal), Media (both linear and digital), Consumer Insights, Promotions/Calendar within the Marketing Department.  In addition, this role has P&L responsibility and leads all facets regarding Birthdays and Events.  They will be accountable for consumer insights, strategy, tactics, execution, performance measurement and budget management across each of these areas.  The Senior Director will work closely with the Senior Leadership Team, cross-functional departments, and marketing agencies.

The ideal candidate will have strong Marketing and work experience managing various promotional projects end-to-end, including paid advertising campaigns and digital marketing initiatives.

This exciting opportunity is based at our Corporate Support Center in Irving, Texas, a Dallas suburb, and will report to the EVP/ Chief Marketing Officer. This is not a remote position.

Primary responsibilities include:

Leading the brand’s creative and media strategies — and the agencies to execute it.

• Developing relevant, compelling creative that inspires our Guests to visit, engage and spend.
• Optimizing the brand’s Media strategy & execution.  Includes Paid, Owned and Social. 
• Supervising the creation of all Guest-facing elements promoting marketing initiatives, including Digital and POP.
• Designing, planning, and executing effective campaigns.
• Determining and implementing metrics to measure campaign effectiveness.

Developing a traffic-driving, brand-building promotional marketing calendar (6+ initiatives).

• Developing relevant, compelling creative briefs that drive visitation.
• Build effective coordination with cross-functional teams.
• Designing and coordinating promotional campaigns, PR, and other marketing efforts across all channels.

Supervise Birthday strategies, including Promotion, Packaging, Pricing and Execution.

• P&L responsibility to maximize Same Store Sales and Profitability for reserved events.
• Drive innovation, including packages, technology, add-ons and promotions.

Identify ways to improve Consumer Data-Gathering, Segmentation and Insights.

• Lead development of research tools to drive insights that will influence the brand’s strategies, from creative to media to promotions.
• Serve as the company resource on market trends and competitive analyses.
• Leverage cross-functional relationships to leverage data from other sources (Guest Satisfaction, CRM, Media).

Supervise other initiatives that contribute significantly to the business.

• Increase Gift Card Sales via Retail and 3rd Party (InComm and Blackhawk).
• Manage the Seasonal Pass and Subscription programs.
• Drive Group/Corp Sales with strategic programs/incentive plans partnering with the     Field Marketing Specialist team.
• Work with Global Licensing & Entertainment team to elevate content and leverage partnerships to achieve brand goals. 
• Lead virtual dining brands with strategy, menu development, creative and working with 3rd party delivery companies.
• Oversee food/menu innovation.  Menu development for core menu and LTO’s, working with Purchasing, Operations, and Strategy functions on packaging, sourcing, and pricing.
• Work with International Marketing on sharing brand guidelines, creative resources, insights, event, and marketing best practices with the international department to regionalize with global franchisee partners.

Qualifications & Expertise:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Marketing, Advertising or related discipline.
• 10+ years of marketing experience, preferably in FECs, Restaurants or fast-paced Retail. Specifically on a brand with a $30M+ marketing budget.
• 5+ years of marketing leadership experience, including managing multiple agencies.
• Demonstrated success at exceeding Sales- and Brand-related metrics.
• Strong knowledge across marketing, including brand marketing, PR, digital marketing & performance marketing.
• Proven self-starter, with a scrappy, entrepreneurial spirit.
• Strategic, analytical thinker able to build business cases and measure performance.  But also capable of being actively hands-on.
• Professional and influential communication skills (written and oral) with an ability to adapt communication style to different audiences and levels of leadership.
• Adept at building relationships and liaising with multiple stakeholders.
• Management of at least a 5+ member team.  Must have demonstrated the ability to mentor teams and develop talent.

Success Metrics:

Success will be measured by meeting/exceeding the Company’s financial goals.  Specifically:

• Overall Same Store Sales Growth
• Increases in Traffic (measured via check count)
• Meeting/exceeding new and remodeled store Sales goals
• Virtual dining brands sales/mix

But let’s face it: many of these Responsibilities, Qualifications and Work Experience are exactly what you probably expected when you first saw this position.

Before you submit your resume, please ask yourself these key questions:

• Are you a champion of Operations?  This means that you go out to the stores to see what the Guest — and Team — experience is like.  You make serving the cast members in the stores a priority.  No “ivory tower” marketers need apply.
• Are you respected by Finance?  Do you know how to read a P&L?  Do the words “data cube” scare you?  Do you have experience determining how to measure the success of initiatives?  Experience building profitable promotions?    
• Do you lead with ENERGY?  Are you a leader that inspires and motivates through your positive energy?  Are you enthusiastic and confident?  Are you able to work in a demanding and fast paced environment?
• Have you been a strong mentor and coach to your people?  Can you cite examples of team members that have grown under your leadership (ex. manager —> director).

If you answered “YES” to ALL of these questions, we would love to hear from you.  

What else should you know before you apply?

We are committed to diversity and inclusion.

At CEC Entertainment, we believe that our workforce should reflect the diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives of the many guests we serve. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we do not discriminate against applicants due to race, ethnicity, gender, veteran status, or on the basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. Employment is contingent upon a successful background check and drug screen. Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States.

We have a comprehensive Benefits package.

CEC Entertainment offers a wide variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, disability and 401(k) to eligible U.S. employees as part of their overall employment package. We also offer job training and career growth opportunities.

The Company;

CEC Entertainment, LLC ("CEC"), headquartered in Irving, Texas is the nationally recognized leader in family entertainment and dining with its Chuck E. Cheese, Peter Piper Pizza brands and virtual kitchen concept, Pasqually's Pizza & Wings.

As the place where half a million happy birthdays are celebrated every year, Chuck E. Cheese's goal is to create positive, lifelong memories for families through fun, food, and play and is the place Where a Kid Can Be a Kid. Committed to providing a fun, safe environment, Chuck E. Cheese helps protect families through industry-leading programs such as Kid Check. As a strong advocate for its local communities, Chuck E. Cheese has donated more than $19 million schools through its fundraising programs. Peter Piper Pizza features dining, entertainment and carryout with a neighbor-hood pizzeria feel and "pizza made fresh, families made happy" culture.

Peter Piper Pizza takes pride in delivering quality food and fun that reconnects family and friends. Created in 2020, Pasqually's Pizza & Wings offers a distinct, customized eating experience outside of a restaurant environment that amplifies classic pizza and wings and operates out of 400 ghost locations nationwide. The Company and its franchise operate a system of nearly 600 Chuck E. Cheese and more than 120 Peter Piper Pizza venues, with locations in 47 states and 17 foreign countries and territories. For more information, visit chuckecheese.com, pasquallyspizza.com, and peterpiperpizza.com.

Benefits:

CEC Entertainment offers a wide variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and 401(k) retirement savings plan to eligible U.S. employees as part of their overall employment package. We also offer job training and career growth opportunities. Chuck E. Cheese is a "Work Today, Get Paid Tomorrow" employer.

* * *

At CEC Entertainment, we believe that our workforce should reflect the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of many guests we serve. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we do not discriminate against applicants due to race, ancestry, color, genetics, gender identify, gender ex-pression, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or on the basis of any other federal, state or local protected class.