Lazy Dog Restaurants

Valentine's Day is the highest-stakes night of the year for a restaurant. The window to capture a reservation is narrow. The competition is loud. And the difference between a full house and empty tables often comes down to decisions made in the final week before the holiday — not the weeks before that.

Lazy Dog Restaurants came to us needing to drive reservations across dozens of locations. The challenge wasn't awareness. People already wanted to go out for Valentine's Day. The challenge was being the restaurant they thought of when they were ready to book.

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The insight that changed the approach

That distinction — capturing demand versus creating it — shaped everything we did. Most seasonal campaigns treat the full window as equal opportunity. They're not. Booking intent for a holiday dinner doesn't build linearly. It spikes. The brands that win are the ones positioned to capture that spike when it arrives, not the ones who spent their budget before it did.

How we executed

Rather than pacing ad spend evenly, we built toward the moment. Creative led with the dining experience, the offer, and the urgency of a limited booking window. We ran across Meta and TikTok — Meta doing the conversion work, TikTok expanding reach among diners who hadn't yet made up their minds. As Valentine's Day approached and booking intent peaked, we scaled spend to match. Daily investment reached around $1,250 in the final days of the window.

What it produced

Over $150K in revenue. 612% ROAS. More than 2,500 bookings at an $11 blended CPA. And the number that matters most to a restaurant operator: roughly 30% year-over-year growth in in-store sales during the promotional period.

More than 90% of conversions were click-through — people who saw the ad and acted immediately. That's what happens when media spend aligns with intent rather than fighting against it.

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The takeaway

The lesson isn't specific to Valentine's Day. Any time you're marketing around a high-intent seasonal moment, the brands that win aren't necessarily spending more than their competitors. They're spending at the right time, on the right message, to people who are already looking for a reason to say yes.