The New Mexico Lottery launched its holiday games in October, beginning with a “Happy Hall-o-days” ad campaign on October 1.
“We can either promote Christmas at Halloween and annoy our players or acknowledge that we’re trumping Halloween and make fun of ourselves by saying, ‘yeah, we know it’s not even Halloween yet, and we’re kind-of, but not really, sorry.’ Our pre-Thanksgiving POS looks like spooky Christmas. It features spider webs and it even has a pumpkin tree ornament,” said Wendy Ahlm, Marketing Director, New Mexico Lottery. “As soon as Thanksgiving ends, we will begin a very traditional warm and fuzzy Christmas campaign that runs through Christmas.”
The New Mexico Lottery even staged a Halloween “Hall-o-days” Trolley Treat event at the lottery headquarters, which is based in Albuquerque.
“The promotion will feature the holiday games and players who come dressed in costume get a chance to win Lottery bucks. Players dressed in Christmas costumes will get two entries. And, players who purchase holiday games will get to enter for fun holiday prizes. We’ll also decorate for Halloween with a lot of Christmas flare,” explained Ahlm.
The West Virginia Lottery launched a $5 TRUCK OR TREAT / HAUL-IDAYS Chevy Silverado ticket featuring a promotional drawing including cash prizes and two Silverado trucks.
“The West Virginia Lottery retailers carry the holiday games and our players purchase tickets as gifts, but the West Virginia Lottery prefers to print our Halloween and holiday games as two separate pulses within the same game due to our small population and print runs,” said Michael Thaxton, Product Development Manager, West Virginia Lottery.