Colorado Lottery
Marie Valtakis, Sponsorship and Events Manager, Colorado Lottery
What events (fairs, festivals, concerts) will you sponsor/engage with this year? If applicable, what physical presence will you have at the event?
National Western Stock Show:
- This 16-day event celebrates the Western lifestyle and offers the Colorado Lottery the opportunity to sell products and engage with attendees throughout the event. In addition to ticket sales, we conduct a t-shirt toss in each of the 28 rodeos, offer seat upgrades, a “Behind the Chutes,” and hitched wagon ride experiences.
Colorado Rockies:
- Our annual season sponsorship includes ample, in-stadium presence including in-game and social promotions.
- The Lottery will also host a “Lottery Day” with mascots, a VIP promotion, and a booth activation.
Colorado State Fair:
- The Lottery has a designated building at the fairgrounds at which we sell products during the fair.
- We put on a concert every year. The band will be announced in June.
Chile & Frijoles (festival celebration of the local Chile harvest):
- Lottery will be present with the marketing vehicle and team to sell tickets.
- We will present and judge the Jalapeno Eating Contest.
Runyon to the Res (grassroots clean-up event):
- Runyon to the Res is a Colorado Lottery-created event designed to show our communities that we support conservation with our hands and words. The Lottery will host volunteers to clean up an approximately 8-mile stretch of the Lottery-funded Arkansas River Trail. This cornerstone event kicks off in October, Colorado’s Conservation Month.
Proceed tie-in events:
- Proceed events give us a platform to engage and discuss the impact of Lottery dollars in those areas.
- First Day Hike – This statewide event happens on January 1 and encourages Coloradans to start the year by getting outside. It is a natural fit for the Colorado Lottery to partner with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to celebrate this day with a team on-site at a state park.
- Pond Hockey Tournament – Georgetown, Colorado, hosted this year’s Pond Hockey Tournament which took place on Georgetown Lake. A Lottery-funded trail surrounds the lake, which gave us a perfect opportunity to engage with attendees with games and funding information.
- Spring Run Off – A 10k run/walk event along the Arkansas River Trail which is partially funded by Colorado Lottery. Our team was on-site with games and Lottery funding information in that area.
- Loveland Bike & Trails Day – National Trails Day is an annual event hosted by the American Hiking Society. It celebrates not only national scenic and historic trails but also trails on public lands. We will partner with the City of Loveland to celebrate Lottery-funded trials within that community.
- Denver Century Ride – This bike event is an engagement opportunity for us to highlight the trails, parks, and projects made possible by Colorado Lottery as cyclists pass through proceeds locations along the various courses.
- Volunteers of Colorado – The Lottery will partner with Volunteers of Colorado as they host an outdoor stewardship project at a Lottery-funded location during October, Colorado’s Conservation Month.
- Pop Ups – Throughout the year, the Colorado Lottery hosts pop-up events at partner locations. We often partner with Colorado Parks and Wildlife at their park events to educate attendees about Lottery funds at work in those locations.
- Retailers – The Lottery hosts events at retailer locations throughout the year, for new retailer grand openings, for large jackpot ticket giveaways, and when a retailer sells a $1 million plus winning ticket.
In the past few years, have you made any changes to your event strategy that were either a success or a failure? What did you learn?
Our event strategy aligns with Colorado Lottery’s three pillars: Revenue, Responsibility, and Conservation. As such, our event plan supports marketing initiatives, partnerships with proceed partners, and conservation. We have not made changes to our strategy.
If you have a physical presence at an event, what types of activations/engagement opportunities do you employ and why?
- Do you incorporate a prize wheel? Have you tried any other form of game?
When we have a physical presence, we strive to customize the activation and prizes to the event, audience, current marketing strategy, etc. For example, we partnered with the Denver Broncos last season and had an out-of-the-stadium activation at all home games before kick-off. We offered fans the opportunity to take the position of quarterback and complete three passes to the receiver for a chance to win a specific scratch ticket that could be entered to win a trip to see the Broncos play on the road.
Other games we use often are Plinko, prize wheel, giant Yahtzee, photo booth, table hockey, fishing pond, lock box (think P.O. Box), and guess the # of XX in an acrylic cube.
In addition to events, we also utilize our asset arsenal at retail locations to support promotions, grand openings, and customer appreciation events.
- Do you sell tickets?
We do sell tickets at some events, but not all.
- Do you use a selfie booth?
No
Do you have certain KPIs you measure success with for events?
When recapping an event, we note total sales (where applicable), impressions, engagements, engagement zones, and touchpoints.