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By Ad Age and Creativity Staff - 6 hours 41 min ago

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The burger chain will give its mascot a more prominent role moving forward.

You don't know Jack—at least not the way you think you do. And that's why burger chain Jack in the Box has hired a new creative agency of record to modernize and redefine its longtime brand mascot, Jack Box.

The San Diego-based chain has named TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles as its creative agency of record following a competitive review started in January and led by the consultancy RallyCry. 

As a result, the brand is parting ways with David&Goliath.

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“For the past eight years, we have helped the Jack in the Box brand navigate through some pretty daunting challenges and produced great work and groundbreaking results along the way. We wish them all the best,” David&Goliath said in a statement. 

David&Goliath "did a great job for this brand and I don't think we'd be where are without them,” said Ryan Ostrom, who became the chain's chief marketing officer in January of last year. “They've been amazing and great partners," adding "sometimes you just want a little different perspective and a quick shift.”

A big part of the food chain’s advertising moving forward will focus around giving a larger role to Jack Box, who is touted as the company's "founder and CEO" in ads. 

“There's opportunity to bring back 'Why Jack is even Jack?'" Ostrom said. “He's an icon. You're going to see him everywhere. There's been a little bit of disconnect in our brand where you saw Jack in our ads, but he wasn't as front and center on social. He is now—we're starting to bring that to life a little bit," he said. "How do we bring that fun personality, excitement, cool factor, and that quirkiness of Jack to life in our stores?”

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Erin Riley, CEO of TBWA\Chiat\Day LA, says bringing the character’s essence back is about sticking with “a clear narrative around his motivation.”

The goal is to “give him a little bit of edge, more of a point of view, but also modernize him. There are certainly quite a lot of things that have changed in how the world sees CEOs since that first storyline emerged. I think we can borrow from that a little bit, if you look at all the CEOs that are celebrities and influencers in some way in their own right. There's a lot of material there, but I think it will really start with 'Let's get back to what would Jack do?' Let's really get rigorous about what that motivation is and that character.”

This relationship is a reunion of sorts, as TBWA was the agency that first introduced the Jack Box character in 1994. The agency parted ways with the brand in 1997, and TBWA executive Dick Sitting, who created and voiced the character, ended up forming his own agency, Secret Weapon Marketing, which handled the account until 2015.

“Sometimes you have to go back to move forward," Ostrom said. “We were really just trying to find a partner moving forward that gets who we are and is willing to push us and make us feel a little bit uncomfortable where we want to take Jack next, but also understands who we are. We're a west coast brand and not every agency knows what Jack in the Box is. We're not just another McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King. We're Jack, and we do things a little differently.”

Jack in the Box operates and franchises over 2,200 restaurants, primarily in the western and southern parts of the U.S., including one in Guam, according to its financial filings. 

In the first quarter of this year, the Jack in the Box brand saw same-store sales growth of 1.2%. That follows a strong 2021 in which Jack in the Box's same-store sales increased by 10.3% for its 2021 fiscal year ended in October.

The brand’s advertising spend has also increased recently. Last year the restaurant chain spent $59.3 million on advertising, a rise of $52.7 million in 2020, according to a report by Kantar. The brand has recently focused on innovating its offerings. Last year the brand launched a new loyalty program and introduced ghost kitchen locations, which are physical spaces dedicated to pick-up and delivery only.

Jack in the Box has made significant changes in its C-suite over the past couple years. In May, Tony Darden, formerly from MOOYAH Burgers Fries and Shakes, was named chief operating officer. In April the brand brought on Steve Piano, a former GNC exec, as its chief people officer and Doug Cook, a former Pizza Hut exec, as chief information officer. In 2020 Darin Harris was named CEO, after serving as CEO of the Regus Group’s North America division.

The brand is also focused on expansion. In August, Jack relaunched its franchise development program. In the restaurant chain's first quarter, it reached agreements to develop 98 restaurants, bringing its total to 201 future franchise development commitments. The agreements will help Jack in the Box grow in existing markets including Los Angeles. California and Dallas and Houston Texas, as well as new ones such as Salt Lake City, Utah and Louisville Kentucky.

TBWA will also be focused on helping the brand reach broader audiences, using the resources of the shop's multicultural practice created last year.

In addition to TBWA, Jack in the Box has brought several other agencies onto its roster. Small Girls PR was tapped as public relations and communications agency of record; Conscious Minds will lead Jack in the Box's digital and social content, and Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort has been brought on as a brand partner to help with select video content. Dentsu's Carat will remain as media AOR, which it has been since 2017.

Small Girls recently launched a campaign for Jack in the Box that pokes fun at the number of McDonald’s locations with broken ice cream machines. The campaign, which will last until the end of March, redirects consumers to Jack in the Box locations instead. Ostrom said this is the type of work he would like to put out as it looks to cement itself as a challenger brand.

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“I think you're going to see more truth-telling at the end of the day. Being truthful, honest, and bringing to light some of the things that make us all laugh or we all think about is Jack’s nature," Ostrom said. 

Conscious Minds will be helping Jack in the Box set up what Ostrom is calling “Curly Fry Studio,” a content creation hub focused on social media content that is more entertainment and lifestyle centric rather than sales-focused. “It’s really easy in this business to create content that's focused on the limited-time offer,” Ostrom said.  “Well, once that limited-time offer goes away, what are we going to talk about? This allows us to create content that people want to pay attention to and explore. It's less about the product and more about the brand.”

The overall plan is to move Jack in the Box toward more out-of-the-box marketing beyond TV, such as social media and gaming.

“I'm not a person that says let's create a 15 [second video] and cut it down for a six and let's cut that down,” Ostrom said. “That's old-school marketing thinking. It's about creating the right content for the right channel. So as we keep increasing these channels through the digital space, how do we make sure to consistently bring to life that Jack message across all those channels? That's going to be the challenge, but that's also what makes marketing fun.”

~ ~ ~ CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified the Chief Information Officer at Jack in the Box.

Brian Bonilla covers ad agencies, including creative and media shops, experiential, health care agencies and more. He previously covered the private equity industry as a reporter for PEI Media.