Male Opps: Dave & Buster's launches fall campaign with new influencer partner, increases spend (Score 69)

Sales Lead: Dave & Buster's (D&B) teamed up with Cowboys player Micah Parsons in its fall campaign.

• Made by creative and digital AOR Mother NY, the campaign encourages adult viewers to skip their adult responsibilities in favor of visits to D&B.
• Extensions to this campaign will continue rolling out throughout the fall.
• D&B tends to rely heavily on seasonal advertising; for example, it launched a summer campaign in June 2023.
  • The company has been advertising not only the activities and games it provides but also its fall sports viewing access and its food offerings.
• The company will likely:
  • Pursue similar influencer partnerships
  • Bolster spend as its fall campaign continues rolling out new iterations
  • Ramp up spend ahead of the summer 2023 season; reach out by the end of the year to secure last-minute Q2-Q3 ad dollars.
    • Digital spend will especially likely XXXXXXXXXXXX since D&B hired digital marketing VP Darshan Gad in January 2023 and digital marketing director Yvette Davis in April 2023.
  • ​​​​​​​Seek new agency partners following 2022 leadership shifts
• Target demographic: 
  • Gen-Z and millennial men

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far in 2023, D&B has allocated roughly $2.2m toward national TV commercials, 22% more than the roughly $1.8m allocated within the same 2022 timeframe.
  • Last year: The company allocated around $3.2m toward this channel in 2022 and 42% less, around $1.9m, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: D&B's 2023 commercials have targeted male sports enthusists watching shows such as NBA Basketball, the 2023 NFL Draft, College Basketball, and NFL Football - Classic Replay.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The entertainment chain has spent approximately $7.5m on digital ads YTD, already about double the approximately $4.8m spent in all of 2022.
  • YTD data: Since the start of the year, D&B has earned ~900m digital impressions via Facebook (32%), YouTube (31%), Instagram (29%), desktop video (6%), and Twitter (2%) ads.
  • Last year: The company's estimated full-year 2022 spend decreased by 41% to $4.8m from that of $8.1m in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • The company utilizes Google Ads along with print (magazines), OOH, digital, local broadcast, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and online video (via Youtube.com, Youtube IOS, and Youtube Android) ads.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: If you haven't yet done so, reach out soon since it's not too late for agency reviews to follow last year's leadership shifts.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​Mother NY: Creative and digital AOR (2020)
  • Spark: Social AOR
  • Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media: Media AOR

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser.​​​​​​​