The Louisiana Lottery Corp. is spotlighting its Mardi Gras scratch-off games by hosting a king cake giveaway on its website Jan. 6-28 in conjunction with Cartozzo’s Bakery, a gourmet wholesale and online bakery in Kenner. As part of their entry, participants will share their “dream” king cake flavor for a chance to join the experts at Cartozzo’s to help prepare a version of it.
“A purchase is not necessary to enter the promotion,” explained Kimberly Chopin, Director, Communications, Louisiana Lottery. “The promotional form is on the Mardi Gras games landing page of our website and anyone can enter as long as they are at least 21 years of age and a Louisiana resident. The promotion is a fun ‘hook’ to get visitors interested and create exposure to our products and brand. We consider these types of promotions a ‘soft sell’ that aids in building good will and loyalty among current players and introducing new players to our brand.”
The lottery partners with local companies to reinforce its brand and its mission. “With proceeds funding K-12 public education, the Louisiana Lottery exists for Louisiana. When we publicly support other local brands, it helps drive that message home,” said Chopin. “Cartozzo’s was a great fit for this promotion because they are a wholesale and online bakery that specializes in mass production and custom order shipment. The management is forward-thinking, loves the lottery and sees the benefits to the partnership. That is the best kind of partner.”
Using video was a key consideration when the lottery designed the promotion. “We’ll accompany the winner to the bakery to capture clips of the baking process, plus interview the winner about their creation and bakery personnel about why the entry was selected,” said Chopin.
The lottery brought its Powerball and Mega Millions mascots to Cartozzo’s. “We shot them hamming it up while mixing dough, playing tug of war with the king cake dough ribbons, decorating the cakes with sugar sprinkles, etc. We used these shots as our creative to pique interest and grab attention,” she said.
The giveaway is being promoted on the lottery’s home page and special promotional landing page. “From an owned media standpoint, paid and organic posts are being run on Facebook and Twitter (3.2% engagement rate), and a broadcast email was sent out to our player’s club members,” she said. “In addition, we are running a digital ad campaign across display, mobile, and tablet using a blend of advanced targeting methods and technology to deliver our ads. We are running ads across a network of local and national sites which will help reach our target audience across focused and trusted websites.”
The lottery is targeting cooking enthusiasts and foodies, so its banners will appear on mobile apps such as Epicurious, Grubhub, Food Network, and Yummy Recipes. “As we are also promoting the ticket, our targeting plan could serve ads to apps/sites such as Full Tilt Poker, Solitaire and Blackjack. All of this, of course, is layered in with ages 21+ filter and advanced geo-targeting to insure ads are only delivered within Louisiana. Four days in, the campaign is pacing well; we monitor performance to optimize placements and key words.”
