Dave & Buster’s + Families
Challenge
There was an internal “cultural” barrier that maintained we would lose our Adult business if we ever marketed to Families. D&B had never expressly “invited” families into the Brand since it’s inception. Further, a consultant brought in by the ownership group discouraged investing in any target beyond Adults.
Insight
When kids were out of school, we would naturally see more Families visit. But I believed that we were taking them for granted. We weren’t aggressively speaking to them. They were 40% of our Revenue, yet we hadn’t marketed to them simply because of historical biases and a consultant from the private equity group. I felt that we were missing an opportunity.
the solution
I convinced the leadership to conduct a test to determine the potential. We developed a media plan that targeted Kids – and Kids alone – to leverage the “nag factor”. We ran the program for a month in the summer.
results
The test period quarter was up +6%. The test was so successful that we added media during the holidays, where we saw a +12% increase in Walk-In Sales. After that, we kept investing more and more as we continued to see a return.
Today, marketing to Kids is a core aspect of D&B marketing. There are now 38 weeks of media targeting Kids during school holidays and weekends. The Lunch/Afternoon Dayparts where we have seen the greatest increases in Family visits have been the fastest-growing in terms of Sales Growth.
