Attraction marketing case study · Las Vegas, Nevada
How Minus5 Ice Bar Turned an Underused Photo Booth Into a Guest Engagement Experience With BuzzyBooth
The story
Minus5 Ice Bar replaced an underused paid photo booth with a free BuzzyBooth experience, giving guests an easy way to capture and share their visit while helping the venue collect customer contacts and generate reviews. After seeing the results, Minus5 expanded to a second installation.
Minus5 Ice Bar: Results Across Two Locations
Cumulative BuzzyBooth dashboard totals across two installations. Media captures count content, not unique guests; contact records may include repeat visitors, and recorded reviews do not measure how many additional reviews BuzzyBooth generated.
The challenge
A Photo Booth Guests Barely Used
Minus5 Ice Bar offers guests a distinctive experience: stepping into an immersive ice environment in the heart of Las Vegas. It was a natural setting for memorable photos and group experiences.
But its existing paid photo booth wasn't delivering the engagement the team expected.
Guests had to pay to use it, and according to the team, hardly anyone did. The booth occupied valuable space without generating meaningful participation.
Minus5 needed a better way to turn the guest experience into something visitors would want to capture and share.
Rather than continuing with a photo booth that depended on individual purchases, the team decided to try a different approach.
The solution
Make the Photo Experience Free
Minus5 replaced its underused paid booth with BuzzyBooth, making the photo experience free for guests in the lobby.
Instead of asking visitors to pay for a separate photo product, BuzzyBooth became an extension of their visit.
Guests could pose with friends, family, or partners and create branded photos featuring Minus5-themed frames. The experience gave visitors a fun takeaway while putting the attraction's identity directly into the content they created.
The change also gave Minus5 access to additional engagement opportunities through customer contact collection and review requests.
The goal was simple: make it easier for guests to participate while creating more opportunities for the venue to build relationships with its audience.
The results
Thousands of Captures, Contacts, and Reviews
Across two installations, Minus5's BuzzyBooth dashboards recorded thousands of guest media captures, customer contacts, and reviews.
| Metric | Installation 1 | Installation 2 | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guest media captures | 15,922 | 12,694 | 28,616 |
| Recorded customer contacts | 16,907 | 11,780 | 28,687 |
| Recorded reviews | 965 | 675 | 1,640 |
| Estimated shares | 2,384 | 2,196 | 4,580 |
These results illustrate how a free photo experience can create value beyond the individual photo.
- More opportunities for guest engagement. The dashboards recorded more than 28,000 media captures across the two installations, demonstrating sustained use of the photo experience.
- A valuable source of customer contacts. The dashboards also recorded more than 28,000 contact records, giving Minus5 a potential audience for future marketing, subject to appropriate consent and data-handling practices.
- Additional review activity. The dashboards recorded 1,640 reviews. For a tourist attraction in a competitive destination like Las Vegas, review generation is an important area to measure and manage. These totals show recorded activity, not proof that BuzzyBooth caused every review.
- More shareable guest content. The dashboards estimated 4,580 shares, offering another indicator of how guests interacted with the photo experience.
The customer perspective
Why Minus5 Expanded
The strongest sign that the team saw value in BuzzyBooth was its decision to add a second installation.
After introducing the experience, Minus5 expanded BuzzyBooth to its Mandalay Bay and Venetian locations.
The change represented a different approach to the photo booth: rather than relying on guests to buy photos, Minus5 could offer an engaging activity while supporting its broader guest experience and marketing goals.
For attractions
Why This Matters for Attractions and Entertainment Venues
Minus5's experience highlights a practical lesson for attractions, immersive experiences, and family entertainment venues: a photo booth doesn't have to depend on selling individual photos to deliver value.
When the experience is free and easy to use, it can become a natural part of the guest journey.
For venues evaluating a photo booth or guest engagement platform, the key questions are:
- Guest engagement: Are visitors actually using the experience?
- Brand visibility: Does the content reinforce the attraction's identity?
- Customer relationships: Can the experience help build a permission-based marketing audience?
- Online reputation: Can review requests become a convenient part of the guest journey?
- Scalability: Is the experience valuable enough to expand to additional locations?
BuzzyBooth gives attractions a way to bring these opportunities together in one guest-facing experience.
Next steps
Bring BuzzyBooth to Your Attraction
Minus5 Ice Bar moved from an underused paid photo booth to a free guest experience, recorded substantial activity across two installations, and chose to expand to a second location.
Explore BuzzyBooth for Family Entertainment Centers →Frequently Asked Questions
How did Minus5 Ice Bar use BuzzyBooth to improve guest engagement?
Minus5 Ice Bar replaced an underused paid photo booth with a free BuzzyBooth experience in its lobby. Guests could create branded photos as part of their visit, while the venue could use the platform to support customer contact collection and review requests.
Why did Minus5 Ice Bar replace its paid photo booth?
According to the Minus5 team, its previous paid photo booth received very little use. Making the BuzzyBooth experience free removed the separate photo purchase and gave guests a more accessible way to participate.
What results did Minus5 Ice Bar achieve with BuzzyBooth?
Across two installations, Minus5's BuzzyBooth dashboards recorded a combined 28,616 guest media captures, 28,687 customer contact records, 1,640 reviews, and an estimated 4,580 shares. These are cumulative platform totals. Media captures are not unique guests, contact records may include repeat visitors, and the review total does not measure how many additional public reviews BuzzyBooth generated.
Does BuzzyBooth help attractions collect customer contacts and generate reviews?
BuzzyBooth supports customer contact collection and review requests as part of the guest photo experience. Results depend on guest participation, implementation, and the venue's processes. Customer contact collection should follow applicable consent and privacy requirements, and review requests should comply with the relevant review platform's policies.
Is BuzzyBooth suitable for other attractions and entertainment venues?
BuzzyBooth can be considered by attractions, immersive experiences, family entertainment centers, arcades, bowling centers, cinemas, and other venues that want to create branded guest photos and support customer engagement. The best setup depends on each venue's audience, space, and marketing objectives.
Why did Minus5 Ice Bar add a second BuzzyBooth installation?
The Minus5 team reported being pleased with the engagement and review results and subsequently added another installation. The expansion is a useful indication that the team saw value in extending the experience to another location.