Chuck E. Cheese has a new virtual brand catering to families.
LankyBox Kitchen is a tie-in with LankyBox, a kid-friendly YouTube channel with millions of subscribers. The menu is aimed at young eaters, with personal pizzas, mac and cheese and fries. Packaging will feature LankyBox characters and a QR code that links to exclusive videos.
More than 460 Chuck E. Cheese locations are now offering the brand for delivery only via lankyboxkitchen.com and third-party delivery apps.
The 600-unit eatertainment chain developed LankyBox Kitchen in partnership with Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC), the parent of MrBeast Burger and other delivery-only brands. VDC has had success creating restaurant brands around online celebrities, specifically MrBeast, another YouTuber with a massive following. It will look to do the same with LankyBox.
“This brand demonstrates our ability to continue to lead the virtual dining space and provide our restaurant partners, like Chuck E. Cheese, access to a captivated audience,” said VDC CEO Stephanie Sollers in a statement.
LankyBox has more than 21 million YouTube subscribers. Its videos star the channel’s human creators, Justin and Adam, alongside animated characters Foxy and Boxy.
The brand would appear to be a good fit for the family-oriented Chuck E. Cheese, which already serves many of the items on LankyBox’s menu. LankyBox even repurposes the chain’s colorful Unicorn Churros as Foxy Churros.
The only entirely new SKU appears to be mac and cheese, which comes in three varieties: classic, Buffalo and pizza.
And Chuck E. Cheese also has experience with virtual brands: It launched its own delivery-only offshoot, Pasqually’s Pizza, early in the pandemic. It’s now in 400 locations.
The idea of these secondary concepts is to add revenue while using the same staff and kitchen.
Chuck E.’s latest brand should get a considerable marketing boost from LankyBox, which will promote the virtual restaurant on its social media channels. Chuck E. Cheese will also run ads for the brand on in-restaurant TVs.
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