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Magazine highlights family entertainment leader?s social media strategy.

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) April 02, 2013 - Chuck E. Cheese?ssocial media strategy is winning according to Restaurant Business Magazine?s annual review of restaurant brands? social media. The leading publication for commercial foodservice news recognized Chuck E. Cheese?s as a ?2013 Social Media 50: Winning Strategies? company because of the quality of engagement on its social profiles and its expansion across multiple platforms.

Each year, the magazine works to identify restaurants that excel at growing their social media following. Using data compiled by Digital Coco, a reputation tracking firm, Chuck E. Cheese?s stood out by asking for customer feedback; leveraging partnerships on its social media profiles; creating corporate transparency through the use of video; promoting month-long events and connecting with moms.

?Chuck E. Cheese?s is very excited to be identified byRestaurant Business Magazine as a top restaurant brand on social media,? said Scott McDaniel, chief marketing officer, Chuck E. Cheese?s. ?We?ve been working with M/C/C to enhance our social media strategy to make sure we best represent the Chuck E. Cheese?s brand online while also connecting with moms and dads in different, more valuable ways than we have in the past. While we believe we have done well, we are very proud to receive this industry recognition to share with M/C/C.?

M/C/C?s work with Chuck E. Cheese?s began by developing a strong Facebook presence in 2010 and expanded in the past two and a half years to include Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and foursquare. By crafting a strategy that focused on creating quality engagement with parents, M/C/C was able to increase interactions with Chuck E. Cheese?s customers by successfully gaining more than 470,000 Facebook likes, more than 6,200 Twitter followers and more than 1,500 Pinterest followers for the company.

Successful and recognized strategies used by M/C/C for Chuck E. Cheese?s are:

Asking for Opinions

M/C/C assisted in creating dialogue between families and Chuck E. Cheese?s, and also engaged with parents online to receive feedback on outfits, poses and music for the new Chuck E. Cheese?s character. In addition, M/C/C monitored, gathered and analyzed feedback to improve guest relations and business operations.

Partnering for Content

M/C/C helped establish ?Joke of the Week? in partnership with Nestl??s Laffy Taffy to share jokes on Chuck E. Cheese?s website, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts. Additionally, M/C/C assisted Chuck E. Cheese?s in establishing a partnership with PBS Kids to share educational content on all of the company?s social media platforms.

Creating Transparency via Videos

M/C/C created and produced a ?Gluten-free the Right Way? video demonstrating the step-by-step process of how Chuck E. Cheese?s gluten-free products are made, increasing transparency of the company. M/C/C capitalized on and used real endorsements in the gluten-free product launch from parents in a Minnesota pre-launch providing authenticity and peace of mind for parents with kids who have gluten-free needs.

Promoting Month-Long Events

M/C/C publicized Chuck E. Cheese?s month-long Halloween event, Chucktober, using social media platforms resulting in increased traffic in stores, online photo sharing and discussions between bloggers and readers.

Connecting with Moms

M/C/C connected moms with Chuck E. Cheese?s by creating Mom Blog Mondays to feature the mom blog voice and insights on social platforms. Through these connections, Chuck E. Cheese?s utilized bloggers to promote lesser-known programs such as Kid Check and Rewards Calendars.

As part of its services, M/C/C strives to be the best in integrating social media for its clients. The agency believes that social networking is an essential part of a modern brand. This not only includes status updates and tweets, but a wide array of services such as content creation and curation, individualized social network creation, online reputation management, and community management and customer service.

?Since we first started working with Chuck E. Cheese?s on social media, we committed to creating conversations and lasting relationships with the company?s fans, brand enthusiasts and everyday parents who come into their stores,? said Jim Terry, senior vice president, account service, M/C/C. ?It was this understanding of quality over quantity that?s made the brand?s social media strategy successful. We are thrilled to have our work on behalf of Chuck E. Cheese?s recognized by a top trade publication, and we hope to continue to lead the way for other businesses using social media.?

About M/C/C

Dallas-based M/C/C provides marketing, advertising, public relations, Internet marketing, social media marketing, video production and research for companies ranging from growing start-ups to global industry leaders. Several of M/C/C?s clients dominate their trades, including Texas Instruments, Harris CapRock and Chuck E. Cheese?s. The agency?s mantra, ?living the unexpected,? has not only helped clients exceed their marketing goals, but has also consistently made M/C/C one of the top public relations, social media and advertising agencies in Dallas for more than 26 years. For additional information, please visit http://mccom.com.

About CEC Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: CEC)

For more than 30 years, CEC Entertainment has served as the nationally recognized leader in family dining and entertainment and the place Where a Kid can be a Kid?. The Company and its franchisees operate a system of 562 Chuck E. Cheese?s stores located in 48 states and eight foreign countries or territories. Currently, 511 locations in the United States and Canada are owned and operated by the Company. CEC Entertainment, Inc. and its franchises have the common goal of creating lifelong memories for families through fun, food and play. Each Chuck E. Cheese?s features musical and comic robotic entertainment, games, rides and play areas, as well as a variety of dining options including pizza, sandwiches, wings, appetizers, a salad bar and desserts. Committed to providing a fun, safe environment, Chuck E. Cheese?s helps protect families through industry-leading programs such as Kid Check?.

Chuck E. Cheese?s aims to promote positive, lifelong memories inside and outside of its stores. In addition to providing a fun entertainment experience for millions of families across the world, Chuck E. Cheese?s has donated more than $7.7 million to schools and non-profit institutions through its fundraising programs. For more information, see the company's website at http://www.chuckecheese.com.

Contact:

Rebecca Renfroe
M/C/C
http://mccom.com/
(972) 480-8383

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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130402_chuck_e_cheesersquos_earns_coveted_top_50_restaura.html

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caskeyburl12 · Apr. 2, 2013

Apr. 2, 2013 ? Tragedies involving children, such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School, fuel massive outrage and calls for immediate action to prevent similar atrocities. The National Rifle Association (NRA) has put forward a National Shield School Proposal which supports the placement of armed security in all schools. A new review by Gordon and Angela Crews from Marshall University in West Virginia and Catherine Burton from The Citadel in South Carolina attempts to find a balanced and unbiased view of the facts within this heated and emotional debate. Their paper, which appears in the American Journal of Criminal Justice, published by Springer, sets out what these proposals would mean to schools and offers some alternative suggestions.

Though the National Rifle Association presents a convincing argument, the authors have found that some of the evidence which they use to back their proposals is erroneous. The NRA contends that schools are not safe places for children, when they are indeed the safest places. They have stated that school violence is the "leading cause of death" of children when statistics clearly show that unintentional injury is the primary cause of death among 5-24 year olds.

Crews and his colleagues then point out that it is still not proven that security guards actually prevent school violence. Both Columbine and Virginia Tech, where two of the most deadly school shootings occurred, already employed armed security guards. There are also the financial implications of such a scheme. These are enormous, both in terms of implementation and civil and/or criminal liability.

Suggestions that volunteers carry out armed policing of schools, though cheap, only adds another layer of potential problems. There are numerous other concerns. There is the increased chance of injury and death. Questions have already been raised about the potential conflict of interest for security firms involved.

There is a raft of problems already documented relating to security guards in schools ranging from criminal activity to increased student detention rates. There is the not inconsequential potential for arms kept at schools to fall into the wrong hands. When there are such serious doubts about the efficacy of a proposal and the costs are so high, alternative solutions must be sought.

Two questions, which the National Rifle Association repeatedly fails to address when looking at school shootings, are whose hands the weapons were in and the ease with which they got there. Crews and his colleagues note that in the past there has been a reluctance to profile school shooters. However, there is evidence to show that in the majority of cases the assailant suffered from some type of mental health issue, dysfunctional family, problems at school, social isolation and in some instances, bullying. They suggest that it is these issues that are the root cause of these tragedies and that in order to prevent school violence, society must address troubled youth, along with their ease of access to weapons.

The authors conclude: "Preventing school violence does not have to be expensive. All it takes is preventing the development of young men and women into perpetrators of school violence, and putting armed guards at fortified schools will not do this...It just requires someone to pay attention, to listen and to care, which really cost nothing." Their assertion is given backing by teachers in California, sixty-seven percent of who believe that hiring a counselor would be more effective at preventing school violence than hiring a police officer.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media.

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Journal Reference:

Gordon A. Crews, Angela D. Crews, Catherine E. Burton. The Only Thing That Stops a Guy with a Bad Policy is a Guy with a Good Policy: An Examination of the NRA?s ?National School Shield? Proposal. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 2013; DOI: 10.1007/s12103-013-9202-x

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/HFTvxu5McOg/130402125042.htm

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VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis prayed Tuesday before the tomb of Pope John Paul II on the eighth anniversary of the beloved pontiff's death in what the Vatican said was evidence of Francis' "profound spiritual continuity" with popes past.

In his three weeks as pope, Francis has jolted the Catholic Church with several gestures that broke with papal tradition, including renouncing certain liturgical vestments, choosing to live in the Vatican hotel rather than the papal apartments, and washing the feet of a Muslim woman during a Holy Thursday ritual re-enacting Jesus Christ's washing of his apostles' feet.

But Francis has also visited with his immediate predecessor, Benedict XVI, and spoken on the phone with him at least three times. And on Monday, he visited the tomb of St. Peter, the first pontiff, which is located in the necropolis underneath St. Peter's Basilica.

On Tuesday, he waited until the basilica was closed to the general public to visit the tomb of John Paul II, the Polish pope who died in 2005. The tomb is located in the St. Sebastian chapel, just inside the entrance of the basilica. He also prayed before the tombs of Popes Pius X and John XXIII.

"As with the visit yesterday to the tomb of St. Peter and the Vatican grottoes, this evening's visit to the basilica expresses the profound spiritual continuity of the popes' petrine ministry, which Pope Francis lives and feels intensely, as he has shown repeatedly with his phone calls to his predecessor Benedict XVI," the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said in a statement.

Traditionalist Catholics have been devastated by some of Francis' gestures, which they have seen as a rejection primarily of efforts by Benedict XVI to revive the pre-Vatican II tradition of the church, including much of the pomp of the papacy.

As a result, Francis' visit to the tomb of Pope Pius X was particularly significant. Pius X, who lived from 1835-1914, is known to some degree as the anti-modern pope: He wrote an encyclical on the dangers of "modernism" in church doctrine and is the namesake of the schismatic group of traditionalist Catholics, the Society of St. Pius X, with whom Benedict tried unsuccessfully to reconcile during his eight-year pontificate.

Visiting Pius' tomb could be seen as a gesture by Francis to those traditionalists upset by his election. Aside from the gesture, however, he and Pius share many priorities ? particularly a concern for the poor.

John XXIII, meanwhile, called the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern world. The Society of St. Pius X was formed in 1969 in stark opposition to Vatican II's modernizing reforms.

In visiting both tombs on Tuesday night, Francis may have been sending a signal that he sees himself as something of a bridge between the two seemingly contrasting pontificates and the resulting divisions within the church today.

John Paul in 2001 made the then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio a cardinal. Bergoglio was elected pope on March 13 and took the name Francis, the first time a pontiff has chosen that name.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/francis-marks-anniversary-john-paul-ii-death-200942981.html

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caskeyburl12 · Apr. 2, 2013

Apr. 2, 2013 ? Today at the White House, President Barak Obama unveiled the "BRAIN" Initiative -- a bold new research effort to revolutionize our understanding of the human mind and uncover new ways to treat, prevent, and cure brain disorders like Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, autism, epilepsy, and traumatic brain injury.

The NIH Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative is part of a new Presidential focus aimed at revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. By accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies, researchers will be able to produce a revolutionary new dynamic picture of the brain that, for the first time, shows how individual cells and complex neural circuits interact in both time and space. Long desired by researchers seeking new ways to treat, cure, and even prevent brain disorders, this picture will fill major gaps in our current knowledge and provide unprecedented opportunities for exploring exactly how the brain enables the human body to record, process, utilize, store, and retrieve vast quantities of information, all at the speed of thought.

Why is the NIH BRAIN Initiative needed?

With nearly 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections, the human brain remains one of the greatest mysteries in science and one of the greatest challenges in medicine. Neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, depression, and traumatic brain injury, exact a tremendous toll on individuals, families, and society. Despite the many advances in neuroscience in recent years, the underlying causes of most of neurological and psychiatric conditions remain largely unknown, due to the vast complexity of the human brain. If we are ever to develop effective ways of helping people suffering from these devastating conditions, researchers will first need a more complete arsenal of tools and information for understanding how the brain functions both in health and disease.

Why is now the right time for the NIH BRAIN Initiative?

In the last decade alone, scientists have made a number of landmark discoveries that now create the opportunity to unlock the mysteries of the brain. We have witnessed the sequencing of the human genome, the development of new tools for mapping neuronal connections, the increasing resolution of imaging technologies, and the explosion of nanoscience. These discoveries have yielded unprecedented opportunities for integration across scientific fields. For instance, by combining advanced genetic and optical techniques, scientists can now use pulses of light in animal models to determine how specific cell activities within the brain affect behavior. What's more, through the integration of neuroscience and physics, researchers can now use high-resolution imaging technologies to observe how the brain is structurally and functionally connected in living humans.

While these technological innovations have contributed substantially to our expanding knowledge of the brain, significant breakthroughs in how we treat neurological and psychiatric disease will require a new generation of tools to enable researchers to record signals from brain cells in much greater numbers and at even faster speeds. This cannot currently be achieved, but great promise for developing such technologies lies at the intersections of nanoscience, imaging, engineering, informatics, and other rapidly emerging fields of science.

How will the NIH BRAIN Initiative work?

Given the ambitious scope of this pioneering endeavor, it is vital that planning for the NIH BRAIN Initiative be informed by a wide range of expertise and experience. Therefore, NIH is establishing a high level working group of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director (ACD) to help shape this new initiative. This working group, co-chaired by Dr. Cornelia "Cori" Bargmann (The Rockefeller University) and Dr. William Newsome (Stanford University), is being asked to articulate the scientific goals of the BRAIN initiative and develop a multi-year scientific plan for achieving these goals, including timetables, milestones, and cost estimates.

As part of this planning process, input will be sought broadly from the scientific community, patient advocates, and the general public. The working group will be asked to produce an interim report by fall 2013 that will contain specific recommendations on high priority investments for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. The final report will be delivered to the NIH Director in June 2014.

How will the NIH BRAIN Initiative be supported?

In total, NIH intends to allocate $40 million in FY14. Given the cross-cutting nature of this project, the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research -- an initiative spanning 14 NIH Institutes and Centers -- will be the leading NIH contributor to its implementation in FY14. Of course, a goal this audacious will require ideas from the best scientists and engineers across many diverse disciplines and sectors. Therefore, NIH is working in close collaboration with other government agencies, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Strong interest has also been expressed by several private foundations, including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and The Kavli Foundation, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Private industries have also expressed a high level of interest in participation in this groundbreaking initiative.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by National Institutes of Health.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/aA3wpX5QBvc/130402145803.htm

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Google bicycles are shown at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Google employees shoot pool at in a break room at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Future of Talent Institute founder and chairman Kevin Wheeler speaks during an interview at an office space in San Mateo, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. Wheeler, whose Future of Talent Institute researches and consults on human resources for Silicon Valley businesses, says the mega-complexes being built today will be hard to staff ten years from now, and that the next era will see smaller workplaces where employers are responsible for meeting achievements and objectives, and have flexibility about when they come in to their office. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Google software engineer Jiang Chen campus sits in a massage chair at a Google campus building in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A Google employee plugs in a Google owned car next to a bicycle at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Friday, March 15, 2013. Companies say extraordinary campuses are a necessity, to recruit and retain top talent, and to spark innovation and creativity in the workplace. And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) ? Apple's ring-shaped, gleaming "Spaceship Headquarters" will include a world class auditorium and an orchard for engineers to wander. Google's new Bay View campus will feature walkways angled to force accidental encounters. Facebook, while putting final touches on a Disney-inspired campus including a Main Street with a B-B-Q shack, sushi house and bike shop, is already planning an even larger, more exciting new campus.

More than ever before, Silicon Valley firms want their workers at work.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has gone so far as to ban working from home, and many more offer prodigious incentives for coming in to the office, such as free meals, massages and gyms.

This spring, as the tech industry is soaring out of the Great Recession, plans are in the works for a flurry of massive, perk-laden headquarters.

"We're seeing the mature technology companies trying to energize their work environments, getting rid of cube farms and investing in facilities to compete for talent," said Kevin Schaeffer, a principal at architecture and design firm Gensler in San Jose. "That's caused a huge transition in the way offices are laid out."

New Silicon Valley headquarters or expansions are under way at most of the area's major firms, including eBay, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia and Oracle. Many will be huge: Apple Corp.'s 176-acre campus will be one of the world's largest workplaces. On the outside, many of the new buildings boast striking architectural designs and will collectively be among the most environmentally friendly in the country. Inside, there are walls you can draw on, ping pong tables, Lego stations, gaming arcades and free haircuts.

Critics say that while some workplace perks and benefits are a good thing, the large, multibillion dollar corporate headquarters are colossal wastes of money that snub the pioneering technology these firms actually create.

"Companies led by older management tend to be very controlling, but when I look at people in the 20s or 30s, they're totally capable of working on their own and being productive," said Kevin Wheeler, whose Future of Talent Institute researches and consults on human resources for Silicon Valley businesses. "To have artificial structures that require everybody to be in the office at certain hours of the day is simply asinine."

Wheeler said he thinks Yahoo called everyone back to work "because they had gotten into a culture of laziness," and that the firm will likely loosen the restrictions soon.

Yahoo was, in fact, an early model of Silicon Valley's happy workplace culture, touting their espresso bar and inspirational speakers as a method of inspiring passion and originality. Today yoga, cardio-kickboxing and golf classes at the office, as well as discounts to ski resorts and theme parks, help it receive top ratings as one of America's happiest workplaces.

Companies say extraordinary campuses are necessary to recruit and retain top talent and to spark innovation and creativity.

And there are business benefits and financial results for companies that keep their workers happy. The publicly traded 100 Best Companies To Work For in America consistently outperform major stock indices and have more qualified job applicants and higher productivity, according to the San Francisco-based Great Place to Work Institute. That may not always be obvious, however.

"People do work really, really hard here," Facebook spokesman Slater Tow said as an engineer glided past a row of second floor conference rooms on a skateboard. "They have to be passionate about what they do. If they're not, we would rather someone who is."

He points out the Jumbotron frame for outdoor movies, the Nacho Royale taqueria, a bank branch with tellers standing by, an artist in residence. Traditional benefits are part of the Silicon Valley packages as well. Facebook offers free train passes, a shuttle to work, a month of paid vacation, full health care and stock options.

Facebook staffers are welcome to stop by and play in Ben Barry's Analog Research Laboratory, a large, sunlit studio with laser cutters, woodworking tools, a letter press machine and silk screening supplies.

"I believe if people feel they can control their environment, that leads to a greater sense of ownership over the product," says Barry, who makes posters for the campus walls with mantras like "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" and "Move fast and break things."

About six miles north at Google's headquarters, workers on one of more than 1,000 Google-designed bikes rolled from one building to another. Others stepped into electric cars, available for free check outs if someone has an errand. In one office, two young engineers enjoyed a beer and shot pool.

Google doesn't want its Googlers to have to worry about distractions in their life.

Concerned about the kids? Childcare is on campus. Need to shop and cook? Have the family dine at Google. Dirty laundry piling up? Bring it in to the office. Bring Fido too, so he doesn't get lonely. There's a climbing wall, nap pods (lay down in the capsule, set the alarm, zzzzz), a bowling alley, multiple gyms, a variety of healthy cafes, mini kitchens, and classes on anything from American Sign Language to Public Speaking. In a shared, community garden, Googlers plant seeds, knowing that if they get too busy, a landscaper will pull their weeds.

The company has no policy requiring people to be at work. But officials say Googlers want to come in.

"We work hard to create the healthiest, happiest and most productive work environments possible that inspire collaboration and innovation," said spokeswoman Katelin Todhunter-Gerberg.

Wheeler says the mega-complexes being built today will be hard to staff 10 years from now, and that the next era will see smaller workplaces where employees are responsible for meeting achievements and objectives, and have flexibility about when they come in to their office.

"When you look at how some of these companies operate, they're in effect, sweat shops. ... They want 80, 90, 100 hours of work. In order to even make that tolerable, of course you have to offer haircuts and food and places to sleep or else people would have to go home," he said.

___

Follow AP National Writer Martha Mendoza at http://www.twitter.com/mendozamartha

Associated Press

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BEIJING (AP) ? Two Shanghai men have died from a lesser-known type of bird flu in the first known human deaths from the strain, and Chinese authorities said it wasn't clear how they were infected but there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

A third person, a woman in the nearby province of Anhui, also contracted the H7N9 strain and was in critical condition, China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a report on its website Sunday.

There was no sign that any of the three, who were infected over the past two months, had contracted the disease from each other, and no sign of infection in the 88 people who had closest contact with them, the medical agency said.

H7N9 bird flu is considered a low pathogenic strain that cannot easily be contracted by humans. The overwhelming majority of human deaths from bird flu have been caused by the more virulent H5N1, which decimated poultry stocks across Asia in 2003.

The World Health Organization is "closely monitoring the situation" in China, regional agency spokesman Timothy O'Leary said in Manila.

"There is apparently no evidence of human-to-human transmission, and transmission of the virus appears to be inefficient, therefore the risk to public health would appear to be low," O'Leary said.

The 87-year-old victim became ill on Feb. 19 and died on Feb 27. The other man, 27, became ill on Feb. 27 and died on March 4, the Chinese health commission said. A 35-year-old woman in the Anhui city of Chuzhou became ill on March 9 and is being treated.

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted tests and confirmed Saturday that all three cases were H7N9, the health commission said.

Scientists have been closely monitoring the H5N1 strain of the virus, fearing that it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most human cases have been connected to contact with infected birds.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-china-first-known-deaths-h7n9-bird-flu-092118642.html

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