Dentsu X for Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster’s partnered with dentsu X to promote its “Eat & Play Combo” on Snapchat during a competitive season. Using Promoted Places, Commercials, and Snap Ads, the campaign drove incremental visits and strong gains in ad recall and action intent.
"The success of this campaign lies in our ability to meet Snapchatters where they are-both digitally and physically. By combining the storytelling power of Commercials with the location-based utility of Promoted Places, we didn't just tell people about the 'Eat & Play' combo. We designed an experience that moved seamlessly from discovery to destination, giving people a direct path to Dave & Buster's and resulting in a massive boost to visit intent."
- Dylan J. O'Bannion, Associate Director of Paid Social, dentsu X
Playing to Win Incremental Visit Intent
Dave & Buster’s is the premier destination for food and fun, offering patrons arcade games, a premium sports bar, and a chef-crafted menu complete with an innovative cocktail list. To promote their seasonal “Eat & Play Combo,” the brand sought to develop a holiday campaign designed to drive full-funnel growth with a critical focus on translating digital engagement into real-world traffic. In its quest to drive incremental visits IRL, the team also faced the challenge of maintaining top-of-mind awareness in the crowded entertainment market during a competitive season.
In collaboration with dentsu X, D&B chose Snapchat for the Snap Map’s unique ability to make nearby locations easily discoverable within users’ daily browsing behavior. By targeting high-intent audience segments like Foodies, Adventure Seekers, and Parents, the brand was well-positioned to capture a greater share of the holiday entertainment wallet and drive measurable incremental foot traffic to their physical locations.
Making a Powerful Discovery Play with Promoted Places
The D&B and dentsu X teams executed a robust multi-format strategy with Promoted Places, Commercials, and Snap Ads. While Snap Ads and Commercials built high-impact awareness, the inclusion of Promoted Places was instrumental in anchoring the campaign to physical locations.
Promoted Places highlight sponsored places of interest on the Snap Map, helping Snapchatters discover places that they want to visit. The Snap Map is used for exploration and browsing to learn more about what friends are up to, what is happening nearby, and which places are “Top Picks” based on the Snapchat community’s visitation trends. Promoted Places enabled D&B to appear natively on the Snap Map and in search, bridging the gap between a user seeing an ad and making a visit to a nearby restaurant.
The campaign’s creative approach was centered on illustrating the “Eat & Play” experience via premium visuals of D&B’s food and games. Adding Promoted Places alongside these video assets created a surround sound effect: engaging videos piqued interest while Promoted Places showed users to their nearest D&B location.
This approach delivered exceptional efficiency and real-world impact:
10M+ Snapchatters reached, maintaining a healthy frequency that ensured D&B stayed top of mind
47% lift in incremental visits
38pt lift in ad recall driven by the Commercials
13pt lift in Action Intent for users exposed to multiple formats—more than triple the performance of single formats
9.4% share of voice during the peak of holiday season, outperforming industry benchmarks for both engagement and intent
With Snapchat’s diverse ad formats, D&B handily captured demand in a competitive season to drive more store visits. The platform’s ability to connect awareness and action via Promoted Places on the Snap Map makes Snapchat a powerful buy for brands focused on real-world outcomes.
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