La Fleur’s signature interactive breaks at the recent La Fleur’s 2018 LotMKT Trends Conference, held May 14-17, 2018, in Washington, DC featured great ‘lightbulb’ moments. Featured below are sound bites from the lottery marketing and ad agency executive panels.
Panelists on the Lottery Marketers Panel were asked what will make lottery stand out.
“At the end of the day we have to populate many more screens with content,” declared Merrill Fullerton, Marketing Manager, Instant Games, Atlantic Lottery Corp. “Media channels come and go. It is about the narrative that engages the player. If we don’t get that right, nothing else matters.”
Cementing loyalty is also key. “We will be using predictive modeling with our new players’ club. We will be using a business intelligence platform. Data produces insights,” said John Gorman, Chief Marketing Officer, Maryland Lottery. “For instance, we noticed that second chance entries spike on Sunday. This suggests something about the time of the week players are thinking about the lottery. Maybe we can engage them while they are thinking about us.”
Telling a lottery’s story is also critical. “I love to see ads that plucks at the heart such as the recipients of the Bright Futures scholarship and the Bob Newhart ad in Kentucky,” said Maura McCann, Marketing Director, New Hampshire Lottery. “In New Hampshire, the money goes to public education. It is time to remind everybody where the money goes.”
Finally lotteries need to stay true to their identity. “We are conditioned to look for the next big thing but I have heard a lot about getting back to the basics at this conference. That is a good thing,” said Edie Frakes, VP, Marketing, Kentucky Lottery Corp.
In the Advertising Trends Panel, ad executives were quizzed on how they could bring agency ideas from their non-lottery clients to provide inspiration.
“We want to create a campaign to make the lottery truly social, build upon that human truth of being part of something bigger,” said Leigh Nance, Account Director, Barber Martin. “We can tap into the idea of giving a moment to dream that also builds a better thing.”
“We focus on technology,” said Eddie O’Leary, President, COLAB. “I want to optimize our landing page experience. The web has been around a while but it is getting better with technology. In Virginia, we embrace a culture of continuous technological change. We have to be where people are.”
“Given the engagement from our Neighborhoods’ microsite, we want to overhaul our website. With our Lucky Lottery Mobile, we have the opportunity to create our own popup events. We can create content. We need a place to showcase it,” said Jodie Warren, VP, Director of Campaign Management, MDB Communications.
As for the process of buying lottery tickets (at a store or digitally), ALC’s Fullerton admitted “I have a lot of problems around our purchase journey. It is not conducive to new players and even for our core players. I would like to find solutions that address those consumer pain points. There is not much more that I can get out of the scratch portfolio. But if we remove those barriers, I believe there is a significant amount of money to be realized.”