Montana Lottery
Daniel Iverson, Content Manager, Montana Lottery
What events (fairs, festivals, concerts) will you sponsor/engage with this year? If applicable, what physical presence will you have at the event?
East Helena Rodeo, Fusion Fight League, Headwaters Country Jam, Helena Bighorns, Jefferson County Rodeo, Montana Folk Festival, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Montana State Fair, MontanaFair, and Race to the Sky
Specific activations vary from event to event. In general, we favor opportunities with dedicated branded areas, signage, and giveaways. At Headwaters Country Jam, for example, we sponsor a “gamification tent” where attendees go in between sets to compete for prizes. At the fairs, we sponsor the beer garden areas. Sometimes we’ll attend an event to interact with players and distribute promotional tickets, but usually, any physical presence is facilitated by the event on our behalf.
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 model has shifted in the past five years or so. For major events like fairs and festivals, we used to set up a trailer from which we’d sell tickets and run promotions. We paused that approach for COVID and ultimately discontinued it—the impact on our limited staff resources became too difficult to justify for the return on investment.
Do you have certain KPIs you measure success with for events?
Last year, we tested intercept surveys to ask attendees a few questions about signage recall and sentiment. The results were positive, although anecdotal. Future years will bring the opportunity to refine and expand our approach to collect more data and draw stronger conclusions.