The latest version of IGT’s Winner’s Choice™ program harnesses iHeartRadio to deliver a blitz of promotional bang for no licensing bucks.
Lotteries working with limited budgets for advertising, marketing, and promotions are always looking for creative ways to launch and support key games and excite players. A unique second-chance program that recently went live in Texas is attracting players in droves by harnessing all of iHeartRadio’s promotional firepower.
For the newest version of its Winner’s Choice™ second-chance program, IGT partnered with the media giant to bring the Texas Lottery all the benefits of iHeart’s substantial reach—including branded audio spots and digital ad placements across iHeart’s 44 top-rated Texas radio stations and hundreds of streaming platforms, deejay on-air chatter and social media, local event sponsorships, giveaways, billboards, and more.
Launched in support of the Texas Lottery’s Cash Blitz family of games on January 2, the promotion has connected with Texas Lottery® players and iHeart listeners in the state across a wide range of demographics and musical genres. After six weeks, the promotion delivered about 76 million impressions in 11 local markets and has already generated 15.4 million second-chance entries at press time.
Check out one of iHeart’s branded radio spots for Cash Blitz! Houston DJ Rod Ryan was just one of iHeartRadio’s notable on-air talents to promote the game.
“Together with IGT’s turnkey, customized marketing support and signature White Glove Service that delivers the program to players, Winner’s Choice™ not only supports lotteries in generating excitement and publicity—it also continues to put the player experience front and center,” said Keith Cash, IGT Vice President Global Instant Ticket Services.
Choice is a Win for Players and Lotteries
Far from being a single, fixed prize, IGT’s Winner’s Choice™ second-chance program gives both lotteries and players enormous flexibility in terms of the offering. While traditional second-chance drawings award a predetermined prize that all players enter to win, Winner’s Choice™ allows lotteries to choose among the prizes offered as part of each program—and players can choose which of those prizes or experiences they receive.
In the current Texas program, in addition to five second-chance drawings awarding almost 30,000 $100 cash prizes, 50 lucky second-chance winners can choose among VIP experiential trip prizes to iHeart’s biggest events such as the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball, iHeartRadio Music Awards, iHeartCountry Festival, iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina, and more. These money-can’t-buy experiences include celebrity artist meet-and-greets, venue tours, exclusive sound-check viewing, and side-of-the stage visits during the performance. Or VIP winners can select a $10,000 cash prize. Another 50 second-chance prize winners will travel to Austin, TX, to participate in the $10 Million Cash Blitz Challenge and attend the iHeartCountry Festival also taking place in Austin.
All are managed via IGT’s personal concierge service, with dedicated staff handling everything from the initial communication with winners to detailed travel and prize coordination and on-site points of contact. Lotteries offering IGT’s second-chance programs also benefit from customized marketing support, including traditional in-store POS, ESMM screens running tailored ads, and much more.
“The team at IGT put a lot of strategic thought into how to maximize the Texas Lottery’s limited budget and deliver these fun and engaging once-in-a-lifetime experiences to players,” said iHeartMedia’s Damon Gunkel, VP/Director of Sales, National Platforms.
“In May 2021, we supported our Texas Gems 7s family of games with a custom version of Winner’s Choice™, and we saw sales of $163.9 million from the family in the first 12 weeks. We loved the promotion and how it was executed,” said Gary Grief, Executive Director, Texas Lottery Commission. “This year, when we launched the Cash Blitz family with the new Winner’s Choice™ program, we immediately began seeing the added value of all the media opportunities as part of the extensive program with iHeartRadio. It has generated awareness and excited players at a level that’s true to our campaign slogan: ‘Here Comes the Blitz.’”
For more information on Winner’s Choice™, contact your IGT Representative.
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