La Fleur’s Magazine moves its spring conference to Richmond, Virginia. Our co-host is the Virginia Lottery. The 3-day conference features an impressive lineup of speakers as well as La Fleur’s first iLottery Roundtable. Here is program:
“We would like to thank the following: Virginia Lottery (co-host of La Fleur’s 2022 Richmond Conference) as well as our Platinum Sponsors (IGT and Scientific Games), our Gold Sponsors (Carmanah Signs, INTRALOT, Inc., Meta, NeoPollard Interactive, and Sightline Payments) and our Silver Sponsors (Instant Win Gaming, Marcus Thomas Lottery Solutions, and Pro-Lite),” said Terri Markle, Founder & Co-CEO of TLF Publications.
La Fleur’s Magazine is staging the conference at the Dominion Energy Center, home of the historic Carpenter Theatre. Fully renovated and restored, this theater is the cornerstone of the Dominion Energy Center. It features state-of-the-art lighting and world-class acoustics while still preserving its Old World feel.
“We are so excited to bring our conference to the Dominion Energy Center in Richmond, Virginia,” said Markle. “Our co-host Virginia Lottery has worked diligently to provide the best experience for our attendees, including providing on-site help as well as producing a custom guide to the city’s sights and restaurants.”
The two-day program includes presentations and panels. “Our speakers have worked so hard to create presentations on the key issues facing the $350 billion lottery industry, including lottery convergence, retail and digital marketing trends, scratch ticket growth, new draw games, and advertising trends,” said Markle. “We also have great panels with industry experts. Topics range from lottery convergence and industry innovations to the $50 scratcher trend and multi-state jackpot games.”
La Fleur’s 2022 Richmond Conference is TLF Publications’ first physical spring conference held since May 2019 in Washington DC. In addition to the physical event, La Fleur’s Magazine is live-streaming the program. Register online through Accelevents.
Below is the lineup of our speakers (lottery organizations and sponsors).
Lottery Presentation Summaries
(Alphabetized by speaker’s last name)
Launching the Fast Play Category: Lessons Learned
Kate Airey, Dir., Product Dev., Maryland Lottery & Gaming
Maryland Lottery launched the Fast Play product category in February 2020—a month before the pandemic was in full swing. Fantastic numbers were achieved but then were wiped out by lockdowns. We had to pull the product category up by its bootstraps—which was no easy feat. Lessons learned include best practices re: differentiation with the scratch product line, and the lack of visibility at retail presented the greatest challenge for the success of game launches—how can we overcome that, without taking huge hits to our advertising budget every time we launch games? Internal assets and promotions—that’s how.
Advertising Trends
Amy Baril, President, NDP
Marketers have much to be excited and overwhelmed by in advertising and media. The languishing Pandemic continues to reshape the landscape. And the shifts in consumer behaviors are here to stay. Consumers have learned over the past 2+ years they can work, play and live anywhere blurring the lines of physical and digital opportunities for marketers. This discussion will cover key trends in the rebounding retail industry from data and privacy shifts, influencer brand relationships, media consumption trends to coupling campaign messages to capture illusive audiences.
Determining the Value of Your Product Line
Mary Cimaglio, Senior Games Manager, Arizona Lottery
As the instant scratch market grows, jurisdictions are exploring opportunities to expand with new high-tier price points. While the addition of a new ticket is exciting, it can also create an imbalance in value propositions for a portfolio. When preparing for a new $50 ticket, the Arizona Lottery mapped the value propositions of their instant product line in order to determine how they could avoid cannibalizing existing sales. This presentation will walk attendees through the Arizona Lottery’s analysis process as well as show how other jurisdictions can use perceptual mapping to determine where gaps may exist in their market.
New Hampshire Lottery: Striving for Synced Player-Centric Experiences
Kelley-Jaye Cleland, Chief Product & Program Officer, New Hampshire Lottery
This presentation will highlight the New Hampshire Lottery’s approach to managing roadmaps, games, marketing campaigns, second chance experiences, retailer and player expectations and more across multiple product verticals and channels. This presentation will highlight lessons learned, multi & omni-channel tactics (and limitations), data and goal-driven decision-making, all with the quest to acquire new players, ensure they have an amazing experience, and provide more funding to education in New Hampshire.
Leveraging Your Core Games to Maximize Sales
Katherine Cundiff, VP, Product Development, Georgia Lottery Corp.
Increasing ticket sales and the transfer of funds over to state beneficiaries remains a primary goal for lotteries. We know from experience, players like new games and games that consistently deliver positive experiences. Keeping players engaged, attracting new players and moving a player up to the next price point can be achieved by creating approaches to maximize the value of a core game. This session will cover strategies and tactics that can be applied throughout your portfolio.
Marketing in the Retailer EcoSystem
Brittany D’Haenens, Director of Marketing, Hoosier Lottery
As consumers’ expectations for convenience and personalized experiences continue to evolve, creating meaningful interactions at every touchpoint has never been more important. In this presentation, we will examine how the Hoosier Lottery has utilized marketing to elevate retailer partnerships, promotions and points-of-disruption to help connect with players from online to in-store. We will demonstrate how insight-driven choices, and a shift in our planning approach, has helped create value for our partners, our players and our business.
Iowa Lottery: Major Retailer Partnerships
Cory Hart, Dir., Marketing & Advertising, Iowa Lottery
Des Moines, Iowa is known as the Convenience and Grocery Store Capital of the United States. Des Moines is or has been the home of major retail chains, such as Casey’s General Stores, Kum & Go, and Yes Way. The Des Moines market also is the home of major grocery retailers, such as Hy-Vee and Fareway. This presentation will focus on the partnerships that the Iowa Lottery has created with major retailers based out of Iowa. This includes data sharing, in-lane, and major co-branded promotions.
Cash Pop: All It Takes Is One Number
Corey Klingel, Draw Games Manager, Virginia Lottery
This presentation will examine the strategy behind and execution of the Cash Pop launch in Virginia. The research-driven decisions before the launch helped map out how to optimize the easy-to-play draw game that is growing in popularity across the industry. The Virginia Lottery teased the launch to spread awareness, found innovative solutions to make the draw animation available across the retail network and provided numerous promotions to keep players engaged.
Social Media Influencers Campaign
Ashley McNatt, Marketing & Advertising Director, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery
In January and February, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery ran a social media influencers campaign on its 5-buck bundle promotion. This was a test to see how effective influencers are at promoting both the promotion and the ASL. The 3-part presentation will examine: 1) Discussion about the importance/innovation of using social media influencers on promoting our brand and retail sales; 2) Talk about ASL’s campaign (Who, What, When, Where, How, Why, etc.), the results and impact on the lottery brand; and 3) Development of a social media influencer program—ASL is working with its ad agency to develop this in hopes that the lottery can have regular lottery influencers.
Reinventing Second Chance with Cash Plus Entry Promotion
Ryan Mindell, Lottery Operations Director, Texas Lottery
Every lottery has a number of goals for its second chance scratch program. A two-stage drawing program, with players winning cash and an entry into the second stage, gives lotteries flexibility to achieve its goals while offering players new and interesting experiences. This presentation will cover the magic of the cash plus entry model along with providing examples that the Texas Lottery has successfully placed into market.
Leveraging Chain Relationships to Maximize Lottery Sales
Pete Ramsey, VP, Corporate Accounts & Business Development, Kentucky Lottery Corp.
The Kentucky Lottery has seen historic growth over the last 5 years. Here are three key initiatives in corporate accounts that have helped drive this growth:
– Ensuring you have the right combination of value driven incentives, support staff and reporting.
– Achieving your chains are aware of their role and engaged with the process of contributing to your state’s good causes.
– Embracing new technology (social, digital, flex payments). Never be afraid to explore new opportunities. The market continues to evolve, and we must evolve with it.
Lightning in a Bottle: A Partnership between the Florida Lottery & Southeastern Grocers
Justin Rock, Deputy Secretary of Product & Sales, Florida Lottery
The presentation will provide an update on the Scratch-Off Floor Merchandising project with Southeastern Grocers (Winn-Dixie) and share plans for an in-lane Draw Game sales pilot in Q1 of fiscal year 2023. It will highlight project milestones as well as customized equipment designs and future growth opportunities with the chain. Additionally, the presentation will offer perspective of what it has been like to work with a corporate retailer who has opened all of the doors for Lottery possibilities and embraced the potential of category growth.
Double The Fun: Colorado’s Two $50 Game Strategy
Tom Seaver, Director, Colorado Lottery
In this presentation, we will discuss the process of selecting, developing and marketing our first multiple $50 game offerings. We will start with our investigation of the concept of multiple games with regular high price point game players. This provided the guidance and confidence to move in this direction. Then we will discuss product positioning, also guided by this consumer research. Positioning became the critical strategic element in making sure a second $50 game would provide incremental sales, and not cannibalize the existing $50 product, or $20 games in market. Finally, we will talk about bringing the new $50 game to market as part of a “family of games,” and why we feel this was a successful strategy.
How to Win at iLottery Marketing
Julie Senchak, VP, Digital Experience, 9Rooftops
It can take years to be granted approval for an iLottery program. When approval finally happens it is one of the most exciting & terrifying moments for Lottery marketers. This presentation will cover how to conquer iLottery marketing starting with pre-launch and launch, as well as analyzing advertising learnings from a more mature program. Finally, get ready to learn about leveraging the power of the Lottery brand to help push iLottery marketing to the next level.
Let’s Get Social!
Danielle Snidow, Deputy Director, Marketing, West Virginia Lottery
Tips and tricks to take your Lottery’s Social Media outreach to the next level! In 2020, Covid hit and on-site Player Promotions came to a grinding halt. The WV Lottery was tasked with finding a safe way to keep in touch with our players. We answered the call with the creation of our Facebook Live Prize is Right Interactive Game Show. The Game Show was a hit and engaged players old and new! Also, we now offer Lottery Talk, a monthly show which highlights our products and promotions and a variety of social contests on all platforms to engage our players.
North Carolina Education Lottery: Optimizing Scratch-Off Growth
Randy Spielman, Dep. Exec. Dir., Prod. Dev. & Digital Strategy, NCEL
Four years ago, the NCEL initiated a scratch-off portfolio optimization project with the goal of positioning the scratch-off category for the next five years of growth. At the time of the project the NCEL had grown scratch-off sales for 11 straight years since the inception of the lottery. To continue that trend, having exhausted all of the natural price point evolution strategies, we had to get a better understanding of the key drivers of portfolio performance versus individual game performance. This presentation will cover the goals, steps and outcomes of that project, as well as the implications for the future.
One Strategy with an Omnichannel Approach
Stephanie Weyant, Deputy Executive Director, Marketing & Product Development, Pennsylvania Lottery
As the Pennsylvania Lottery celebrates its 50th anniversary, hear about its efforts to modernize and integrate iLottery with traditional Lottery to provide players with a seamless user experience. The Lottery will also share its new brand campaign, “Lottery Love”, that celebrates players from their own unique points of view.
The Marketing of Cash Pop in South Carolina
Josh Whiteside, Director, Marketing, South Carolina Education Lottery
Cash Pop is not a new game to the market, but here in South Carolina, we are putting a new spin on how we market the game. This game is extremely simple, so without a large need to explain the game, we have taken a lifestyle approach to how we advertise Cash Pop. We are looking to attract a new player with this campaign in hopes that the audience says… ”I want to be a part of that!” By using high end photography, abstract commercials shot at night and social settings of people living their lives, we hope viewers see the game as something approachable and not intimidating. The color rush of pinks and blues brings a unique and modern feel to the advertising, which is seen less in industry advertising, but more from our competitors in the c-store.
Fast Play: Now Online
Tina Wolf, VP, Product & Partnerships, Camelot Illinois
The draw-based game Fast Play is a popular retail lottery offering in at least 18 states. At the end of 2021, the Illinois Lottery was the first U.S. lottery to also offer its Fast Play games to players online. By transforming a black and white physical ticket into an engaging online play experience, the Illinois Lottery has been able to grow its player base, attract new players, and drive Fast Play sales—all within its existing legislative framework. At the start of May, the Illinois Lottery will introduce another new way to play Fast Play in retail called “Scan-N-Play”.
Sponsor Presentation Summaries
(Alphabetized by Company)
Carmanah Gold Sponsor Presentation: Digital Retail Execution
Maxwell Goldstein, VP Sales, Americas, Carmanah Signs
Traditional media does not have the same impact it once did. How do you best reach players at retail? What opportunities exist for lotteries to meet consumer and retailer expectations, and reinvigorate the lottery brand? Join Maxwell Goldstein to explore these challenges and opportunities, including a walk through the Virginia Lottery’s Digital PlayStation and Digital Menu Board pilot. What can your lottery do to attract and engage players at retail?
IGT Platinum Sponsor Presentation: The Innovation & Evolution of Instant Games
Keith Cash, VP Global Instant Products, IGT
This presentation will examine the record-setting instant sales growth. Instants now represent 67% of total U.S. lottery retail lottery sales. Innovation will drive the instant ticket business. Holistic commitment to innovation is focused on player engagement through mobile and digital features and functionality and revolutionary game development. IGT’s new Infinity Instants(TM) Platform is powering the evolution of instant games. Infinity is a digital printing solution for instant games that provides full color, variable printing on the ticket front, ticket back, and play/prize symbols. Infinity supports targeted promotions by integrating these elements into the ticket theme and design. These can be either brand specific or retailer specific and can be customized for specific consumer segments or seasonal opportunities.
IWG Silver Sponsor Video Presentation: Innovation on the InstantRGS
Instant Win Gaming (IWG) is the leading eInstant supplier to NASPL/WLA-members worldwide. IWG delivers hundreds of top selling games each year. And, IWG’s innovation begins with its InstantRGS. Learn more at instantwingaming.com.
INTRALOT, Inc. Gold Sponsor Presentation: Evolution of Fast Play
Kristen Pare, Regional Marketing Director, INTRALOT, Inc.
One lottery game that has grown significantly in many lottery portfolios since its launch nearly two decades ago, is Fast Play. As a terminal instant product, Fast Play began with smaller price points and typically with only one game on the market at a given time. Today, Fast Play has evolved to multi-game portfolios, higher price points and now many states offer progressive and progressive family games. Through this evolution, the Fast Play product line has been able to provide states with higher revenue and players with exciting new game options far beyond standard scratch tickets.
Marcus Thomas Lottery Solutions Silver Sponsor Video Presentation
Chris Abate, VP, Solutions, Marcus Thomas Lottery Solutions
Marcus Thomas has been serving the lottery industry since 1974, when it began a long relationship with Ohio Lottery. Today, five lottery jurisdictions rely on the firm’s Lottery Solutions Team for innovations in loyalty, web, mobile applications, cashing and retailer management. In 2019, Marcus Thomas introduced mobile cashing to North American lotteries. Because this is LaFleur’s first digital-focused event in Richmond, the Marcus Thomas Lottery Solutions team is giving us all a break – presenting an animated introduction to AdaptEP™, its suite of intelligent lottery solutions designed to improve player experiences, unify player data, and optimize investment in lottery marketing.
Meta Gold Sponsor Presentation: A Success Story by Virginia Lottery & Meta: New Customer Acquisition
Emre Goksu, Growth Manager, RMG & Lottery, Meta
Meta will share how lottery advertisers can improve their new player acquisition strategies across progressive jackpot games, other game offerings, and how Virginia Lottery is leveraging Meta’s industry-leading solutions for their iLottery business.
NeoPollard Interactive Gold Sponsor Presentation: Future of iLottery
Julin Shaw, Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Business Development, NeoPollard Interactive
Jessica Powell, Senior Director, Ignite Player Marketing, NeoPollard Interactive
Shannon DeHaven, VP, Digital Engagement, Pollard Banknote
The expansion of iLottery across North America is being pushed forward by two inexorable forces: technology and commerce. The survival of every consumer-facing industry depends on having a significant online presence, and lotteries are no exception. In a recent report commissioned by NeoPollard Interactive, Spectrum Gaming Group analyzed key issues around the advancement of iLottery in the U.S. The “Future of iLottery” will dive into the report’s findings, covering themes such as iLottery’s impact on retail, responsible gaming, attracting new audiences, and the coexistence of multiple forms of gaming—all essential considerations for lotteries looking to embrace the digital future.
Scientific Games Platinum Sponsor Presentation: Teamwork Makes the Portfolio Work!
Jeremy Kyzer, VP, Sales, Scientific Games
Sustained growth in an instant portfolio isn’t accomplished one game at a time. Results are driven by designing games in context with the whole portfolio and approaching the entire business with an eye for optimization. This full instant game category management approach takes collaboration between the lottery and its supplier throughout the development process on analytics, strategy and marketing support to build games that contribute to a balanced, profitable portfolio. Jeremy will share how Scientific Games Enhanced Partnership is delivering entertaining game experiences, like The Bigger Spin and 7-11-21 Live!, to North Carolina Education Lottery players while generating tangible sales and profit growth across the portfolio.
Sightline Payments Gold Sponsor Presentation: Lottery Modernization
Andrew Crowe, SVP Business Development, Sightline Payments
In the business of generating revenue for good causes, all efforts connect to payments. Explore new benefits for lottery departments with Sightline’s enhanced approach to moving and tracking funds along your consumer journey. Sightline Payments enters the lottery industry with a long track record of success in other gaming verticals. Leveraging data insights from iGaming and B&M casinos, Play+ can provide a glimpse into never-before seen retail data from all channels of lottery disbursement. Online or at the claim center, extend operational capabilities while offering players more convenience, control and visibility into lottery winnings spend. Learn how these enhancements and more can benefit your lottery program.