Everything is bigger in Texas, as the saying goes. So it’s not surprising that one year after launching its successful Cash Blitz family of scratch tickets and promotional second-chance drawings—developed by IGT and powered by licensor iHeartRadio—the Texas Lottery Commission (TLC) has gone even bigger with its latest version: Power Blitz.
IGT once again partnered with powerhouse iHeart to design the promotion and media program, and made the marketing and advertising support even richer: twice as much online-radio deejay chatter, twice as many endorsed and branded audio spots, and twice as many website takeovers. Together with other turnkey elements—including POS for nearly 20,000 retailers, social media, local event sponsorships, giveaways, and billboards—the 2024 program is delivering more than 261 million impressions to the state’s lottery players in support of the TLC’s Power Blitz family of scratch ticket games.
Such robust, multi-tiered marketing, advertising, and promotional tactics not only excite players, they offer a unique advantage by boosting awareness, especially for lotteries managing limited budgets.
“The program is completely flexible and scalable, whether a lottery wants to deploy it with a single scratch ticket game, a family, or a mini-family—licensed or not—and whether it’s an iHeart-branded scratch ticket or simply a game that you want to promote and support with an iHeart media package,” notes Amy Morin, IGT Senior Director, Marketing.
Power Blitz also incorporates features of IGT’s unique Winner’s Choice™ second-chance program. In Texas, the Power Blitz promotion will award 30,000 second-chance prizes of $100 cash, plus an entry into a final drawing from which 50 grand prize winners will be selected. The second-chance program will culminate in May 2026, when the 50 grand prize winners and their guests will travel to Austin, where players will have a chance to win up to $10 million cash in addition to enjoying a VIP experience at the iHeart Country Festival, participate in meet-and-greets with the artists, and other fun, money-can’t-buy experiences.
The Winner’s Choice element includes additional drawings for VIP prize winners to select prizes they want to win, including trips to a variety of iHeart’s tentpole, nationwide events, or the option to pick a $10,000 cash prize.
Stretching Promotional Energy & Dollars
“Back in 2021, when we supported our Texas Gems 7s family of scratch ticket games with a custom version of IGT’s Winner’s Choice™, we loved the promotion and how successfully it was executed. In the years since, the IGT team has continued to enhance this second-chance program, delivering unique sponsorship opportunities for us and exciting experiences for Texas players,” says Ryan Mindell, Executive Director, Texas Lottery Commission.
“As true partners, they’ve brought even more value to the program this year, allowing us to utilize the media dollars from the program with iHeart more efficiently. Due to the additional weeks of advertising, we were able to leverage iHeart’s media support to bolster other scratch ticket games, such as holiday games. This comprehensive media and promotional support from iHeart has allowed us to enhance our advertising effectiveness without spending additional dollars.”
IGT is preparing to up the ante again with TLC’s 2025 Blitz family of games and its associated third iHeart program. While details are still under wraps, players in Texas can expect something even bigger.
For more information on Power Blitz and Winner’s Choice™, contact your IGT Representative.
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Unlike traditional second-chance drawings, which award a predetermined prize that all players enter to win, IGT’s Winner’s Choice™ second-chance program (incorporated into Power Blitz) 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.
All are managed via IGT’s often imitated, never duplicated White Glove Service—a 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 further benefit from turnkey, customized marketing support including traditional in-store POS, ESMM screens running tailored ads, and more.