We want to attract the Gen Z and Millennial audience to the lottery. In the past, we have tried to reach this target through media buying strategies; however, this wasn’t moving the needle on under 35s (U35) consideration and relevance of our brand. The lottery is irrelevant for most people U35, and we are faced with a global challenge as our lottery player base ages. This younger audience has different values and is not always swayed by large jackpots or even cash prizes. We knew we had to get outside of the traditional space the Lotto Max brand plays in and into the hearts and minds of U35s through certain connections. We’ve found that they are looking for unique and exclusive experiences.
Lotto Max Dream Drop in 2022 was the first unique campaign we launched that directly appealed to a younger demographic. We knew we needed to start building a relationship with this younger audience in a meaningful way, which meant focusing on their passion points and showing up where they were already going to be. The fashion space has been growing within this audience with multiple unique and exclusive collabs and drops. This is why we as a Lotto Max brand leaned into the fashion space to reach the hearts of the U35 audience in a relevant way.
We also know that this younger demographic has a deeper importance on community and giving back. Therefore, each of our Lotto Max U35 campaigns—Dream Drop, Dream Bars, and Thrift Drop—had a tie back to a charitable give-back moment, authentically integrated into the program, where 100% of the profits were donated to a local organization.
After Dream Drop’s success, has your approach to these types of promotions changed?
Dream Drop proved successful at increasing consideration of Lotto Max by six points and boosting positive perception of the brand by 40%. After Dream Drop, we aimed to extend the journey from awareness and consideration to getting them into the OLG ecosystem with Thrift Drop. Each piece in the collection comes with a unique Bonus Code that was only redeemable on OLG.ca. Customers had to register an account with us to redeem their code for the one year’s worth of Lotto Max tickets.
We continue to focus on driving consideration and relevancy while providing trial of the product through the “one year of Lotto Max tickets” included with each piece in on our Dream Drop and Thrift Drop collections and the Lotto Max free ticket on every Dream Bar.
When it comes to entertainment needs, there are meaningful differences between the U35 customer and the over-35 customer. Focusing on these key needs and differentiators helped shape the next iterations with Dream Bars and Thrift Drop. Continuing the conversation with our U35 audience through these programs at a proper cadence was critical, but staying authentic to the Lotto Max Brand was also important. Thus, everything in market—from our traditional campaigns to our targeted niche programs—was all “matching luggage” but targeted different segments.
What was it like to work with Kevin Leonel? By hiring him, what did you want him to contribute to the campaign?
Kevin Leonel was one of the first designers to create these unique, one-of-a-kind clothing pieces by repurposing thrifted or antique fabric in the fashion and sports space. He is the expert, and we really wanted to let him have the creative liberty and freedom to use his artistic vision to bring this collaboration with Lotto Max to life. He was a pleasure to work with—authentic and insanely talented. He truly cared, sewing 500 unique pieces on his own.
How did you settle on giving a year’s worth of Lotto Max tickets?
These are small, limited-quantity drops. Each piece costs $200. Not only were we creating FOMO (fear of missing out) by dropping curated pieces through a designer collab, but we were also bringing them into the OLG ecosystem through a digital code. We knew digital registration could be a barrier for some, so to get high redemption and provide the opportunity to engage with our product repeatedly, we included a year’s worth of tickets.
