La Fleur’s 2023 Pittsburgh Conference will be held May 22-24 at the Carnegie Science Center. The conference agenda will focus on gaming competition, iLottery operations, retail opportunities, draw game programs, scratcher case studies, and traditional and digital advertising. The Pennsylvania Lottery is the co-host of the event.
The conference program will start at 8:30 am on Tuesday, May 23 with a welcome from the conference organizers: Terri Markle, Bruce La Fleur, and Byron La Fleur, the owners of TLF Publications.
“We are excited for our physical and virtual audience to take a two-day journey with us into the world of lottery operations today. Our speakers have done a tremendous job creating thought-provoking presentations. And we love to bring our speakers and panelists on stage to be interviewed for La Fleur’s signature conference panels,” said Terri Markle, Founder & Co-CEO, TLF Publications.
Lottery Operations
Drew Svitko, Executive Director, of Pennsylvania Lottery will present Pennsylvania Lottery Today. He will describe the gaming landscape in Pennsylvania as well as the challenges associated with all that gaming. Finally, he will challenge the audience to think about competition as opportunity.
Beth Bresnahan, VP, Communications, Scientific Games will present Scientific Games Platinum Sponsor Presentation: The Science Inside Partnerships. Gaming expansion is a hot topic at this conference and everyday in our industry. We continue to face challenges and threats to the solid foundation we’ve built and must continue demonstrating lotteries’ relevance. One of the best ways we can do this is working in partnership – vendors and lotteries – to build comprehensive support plans across the business. As a former lottery director in two competitive gaming markets and the current voice of Scientific Games’ communication efforts, Beth knows first-hand the power of these partnerships. In this presentation she will highlight past and present successes and what is needed in the future to continue promoting responsible growth.
Pete Donahue, Senior Director of Sales & Marketing, Connecticut Lottery Corp. will present Connecticut: The Gaming Landscape Has Shifted. The CT lottery celebrated our 50th Anniversary in 2022. In our 51st year, we offer iLottery draw, but no einstants. Additionally, we just went through a total system conversion (will be a few weeks prior to TLF conference). Outside of changes with Lottery, we are also faced with increased competition from iCasino game offerings (bringing in $900 Million + each month!). We need to focus on our new channels, but of course manage growth for the traditional side of the business. With a new gaming system, comes new opportunities and we are looking forward to new promotional opportunities on the draw side and well as more scratch/draw promos. On the scratch side, CT was at the forefront of the price point expansion, so that really hasn’t been a focus of ours. However, we are closely monitoring the launches and successes the $50 price point. On the draw side, we definitely have our eye on a new draw game in calendar 2024. We are not exactly sure what that is just yet. We’ll also be looking at ways to enhance our in-state Lotto game.
Jesse Saccoccio, iLottery Director, IGT will present IGT Platinum Sponsor Presentation: The Cloud Has Arrived. Brief: After years of inroads and portions of solutions being on deployed in the Cloud, the evolution has finally started in the iLottery industry where full iLottery system deployments are now cloud based. This discussion will focus on Cloud based solutions changing our disaster recovery solutions, improve scalability to build right sized systems that are flexible to expand when needed, and improve our time to market. Join me as we explore recent deployments of iLottery solutions and how they are revolutionizing our industry to meet the growing consumer demand.
Frank Suarez, Executive Director, DC Lottery will present The DC Evolution to Ecommerce and Sports. The DC Lottery existed for almost 40 years as a traditional lottery. In 2020, that all changed as the DC Lottery became one of two U.S. lotteries operating both iLottery and Sports Betting, launching both platforms in the span of eight months. The presentation will highlight the evolution of the DC Lottery as it expanded into two new vertical lines of business, how it has progressed and its plans to continue to drive future growth.
Jazzmina Redondo, Marketing Manager, Atlas Experiences will present Atlas Experiences Gold Sponsor Presentation: The Power of Incentive Travel. What is the value of including experiential travel prizing in your program line up? Is it just another business expense? Or is it a strategic investment in growing your player base and driving player engagement. At Atlas, we wholeheartedly believe that experiential prizing is a strategic investment and is firmly entrenched as a prize category in our industry. The following presentation will showcase how lotteries can effectively layer once-in-a-lifetime VIP travel programs to their product line up to drive engagement to develop the ultimate brand advocates.
Scott Kenyon, Strategic Games Manager at Virginia Lottery, will present New Games Every Tuesday. Based on a review of its current portfolio and research, the Virginia Lottery modified its Print ‘n Play launch strategy to deploy a new game every month to regrow the category. With two other categories of games with launches at least monthly, the Virginia Lottery developed a strategy to deploy new games every Tuesday and take advantage of the opportunity to increase awareness and sales of online instant games and Print ‘n Play games.
Shannon DeHaven, VP, Digital Experience, Lianne Paturel, VP, Digital Sales & Business Development, and Pall Palsson, VP, Product, Gaming Solutions, Pollard Banknote will present Pollard Banknote Gold Sponsor Presentation: Exploring the Ultimate iLottery Toolbox. An iLottery program is built on a strong foundation and uses a variety of tools and approaches to accomplish its goal of a successful one-to-one relationship between the player and the Lottery brand. This ultimate ‘toolkit’ is multifaceted and spans technology, a wide variety of relationships and includes a full appreciation of the retail channel. This presentation explores the various aspects of optimizing iLottery success by creating seamless player experiences – and includes step by step plans and things to consider –for an exciting build!
iLottery Marketers Panel
Representatives from iLottery jurisdictions will discuss FY23-24 trends.
Panelists:
- Erin Murphy, Interactive Product Director, Georgia Lottery Corp.
- Zac Strickler, Digital Gaming Operations Manager, Michigan Lottery
- Stephanie Weyant, Deputy Executive Director for Marketing & Products, Pennsylvania Lottery
- Rob Wesley, Deputy Executive Director, Virginia Lottery
- Moderator: Byron La Fleur, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Moti Malul, CEO, NeoGames S.A. will present NeoGames Gold Sponsor Presentation: Reflections on the First Decade of iLottery in the US.
Lottery Director Panel: Gaming Expansion
Panelists:
- Helene Keeley, Director, Delaware Lottery
- Frank Suarez, Executive Director, DC Lottery
- John Martin, Director, Maryland Lottery & Gaming
- Drew Svitko, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Lottery
- Kelly Gee, Executive Director, Virginia Lottery
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Joni Hovi, SVP, Customers & Marketing, Fennica Gaming Ltd. will present Fennica Gaming Gold Sponsor Presentation: History & e-Instant Success Story- Fennica Gaming. It all started in the early ´90´s with evolutionary and innovative digital development that materialized in 1996 with the introduction of world’s first digital Lottery gaming platform. After this introduction the innovative development continued in specific vertical development that enabled Veikkaus to compete against private multi-national private operators. As an example of this development, the digital scratch cards saw the daylight in 2004.
In 2004, the eInstants were replicas of the existing and well known physical instant ticket brands. Since then, the evolution has taken us far and today after 20 years of innovation, development, trials and errors, we have a portfolio of eInstants, that combines the casual gaming world and appeals also to younger players and especially women.
Stephanie Weyant, Deputy Executive Director for Marketing & Products, Pennsylvania Lottery, will present Responsible Gambling Advertising & the “Purr-fect” Partnerships. Are you curious like a cat to hear more about the Pennsylvania Lottery’s responsible gambling advertising campaigns? Hear about how the Lottery combined advertising dollars and subject matter experts to form the “purr-fect” partnership with a sister state agency.
Sydney Parker, Account Manager, Lottery, Meta and Emre Goksu, Account Manager, Real Money, at Meta will present Meta Gold Sponsor Presentation: Advancing Digital Brand Measurement. The Florida Lottery saw a lift in brand metrics when it tested mobile-first creative during a holiday season campaign. The lottery and its media agency built a cohesive campaign to run across all paid media channels, including TV and Facebook. For this seasonal campaign and new product launch, the Florida Lottery wanted to ensure that the ads would be thumb-stopping when viewed on mobile devices. Teams followed mobile-first best practices by cutting horizontal TV assets into short-form, vertical videos with a run-time of 15 seconds or less and ensuring that the action was understandable even with sound-off. The measurement strategy included a Brand Lift Study with Meta’s Marketing Science team to test the effectiveness of mobile-first creative.
Tracy Butler, Director of Key Accounts, IGT Indiana on behalf of the State Lottery Commission of Indiana will present Winning with Walmart. A comprehensive review of the Indiana Walmart strategy focused on excellence in execution, a consistent cadence of communication and sales growth. The store level tactics include weekly visitation, new game activation within the first 48 hours, planogram compliance, and continuous training. Our commitment to achieve the highest standard of Full & Available metrics from the Self-Service equipment is supported with analytics and actionable reporting. Ambassador events conducted each month drive customer engagement and the overall partnership.
Modern Retail Panel
Panelists:
- Maxwell Goldstein, VP Sales – America, Carmanah Signs
- Pete Donahue, Senior Director of Sales & Marketing, Connecticut Lottery Corp.
- Terri Rose, Deputy Executive Director, Brand Management & Communications, North Carolina Education Lottery
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Lottery Retailer Panel: Managing Future Growth
Panelists:
- Larry Vertal, Global Age Restricted Manager, Circle K
- Jarrod Cummins, Director of Financial Services, Kroger Co.
- Moderator: Byron La Fleur, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Eric Grubbs, Deputy Executive Director, Sales, and Matthew Greenstreet, Director of Sales, at Pennsylvania Lottery will present Pennsylvania Lottery: Retail Incentive Program. The presentation begins with explaining how the Pennsylvania Lottery’s Retail Incentive plan was developed. The second part of the plan shows the lottery’s execution at retail.
The first day of the Pittsburgh conference program ends with La Fleur’s signature Platinum Sponsor panel. This 30-minute panel will focus on the world of lottery retailing.
Platinum Sponsor Panel: Retailing
Panelists:
- Paul Riley, VP Retail Innovation & Partnerships, IGT
- Drew Svitko, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Lottery
- Burbank Herndon, VP, Retail Solutions Sales, Scientific Games
- Gary Grief, Executive Director, Texas Lottery
- Moderator: Byron La Fleur, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Wednesday, May 24
Day 2 will open with a two-track educational program. La Fleur’s Magazine Publisher Byron La Fleur will moderate the all-day Private iLottery Roundtable.
On the main stage, the conference program will focus on traditional lottery operations, including draw game marketing programs, national bloc lotto games, scratcher programs, and advertising trends.
Draw Game Spotlight
Lottery Director Draw Game Panel: Managing Growth in FY24
Panelists:
- Lester Elder, Executive Director, Missouri Lottery
- Gary Grief, Executive Director, Texas Lottery
- Kelly Gee, Executive Director, Virginia Lottery
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Angel Tallent, Product Manager, Florida Lottery presented the Florida Lottery’s Comprehensive Strategy Driving the Growth of Florida’s Draw Game Portfolio. This presentation will speak on Florida Lottery’s comprehensive strategy to drive the growth of Florida’s draw game portfolio. Introduction of FANTASY 5’s new midday draw with a logo refresh will be covered. The essential cross-play promotional strategy to encourage trial play and entice new and lapsed players will be discussed as well as a dive into Florida’s Bonus Play success and our system in incorporating more instant wins.
Terri Rose, Deputy Executive Director, Brand Management & Communications, and Allan Altholz, Draw Product Manager, North Carolina Education Lottery will present The Evolution of Fast Play. Fast Play has evolved in North Carolina as a major player in the game portfolio. We’ll share the strategies that have worked – some that haven’t – and what’s on the horizon as we continue to grow this product line through coordinated launch plans, promotions and advertising campaigns.
Mega Millions Bloc Panel
Panelists:
- Gretchen Corbin, President & CEO, Georgia Lottery Corporation
- John Martin, Director, Maryland Lottery & Gaming
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Lauren Averill, Senior Marketing Manager, Camelot Illinois will present Illinois Lottery: “Dream Ranger” Draw Game Advertising Campaign. To support MUSL and in-state Draw based games, we created a campaign platform to be used across all Illinois Lottery channels. The campaign platform features the Dream Ranger, who shows up any time someone is daydreaming, or in need of motivation to play for their daydreams. We see the Dream Ranger as the crusader for the power of daydreams, who ensures our dreamers have a ticket – which is what gives any daydream a chance at becoming reality!
MUSL Lottery Director Panel
Panelists:
- Bret Toyne, Executive Director, MUSL
- David Barden, CEO, New Mexico Lottery Authority
- Drew Svitko, Executive Director, Pennsylvania Lottery
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Tom Ackerman, Deputy Director, Marketing, Ohio Lottery will present Ohio Lottery: Gamify Your Day. As we compete for your time and attention, we need to offer fun digital experiences where you are and how you want them – quick, easy, and on your phone.
Let’s turn every interaction into a game that gives you a chance to win.
Let’s get a chance to know you by inviting you into our rewards club.
Let’s give you a reason to visit a retailer and sample our games.
Let’s gamify your day!
Ackerman will take you through all the free gaming interactions that you can have with us throughout a day using your phone, including a free Facebook pop-up game, an interactive TV spot, and interactive radio spot (in-development), and customizable QR-code based statues for events…and more.
Scratcher Spotlight
Katherine Cundiff, VP, Product Development & Research, Georgia Lottery Corp. will present Examination of the $1 Scratch Price Point. Prompted by the industrywide decline of $1 instant scratch sales, this session will examine the role of the $1 game for our players and how this information can help guide long term strategic planning. We will take a look at purchase drivers, prize preferences and the potential removal based on two studies; national study among scratch players and a three month in-store pilot test with RaceTrac corporate stores.
Scott Chavkin, Marketing Director, Colorado Lottery will present Managing Scratch Price Points to Maximize Growth. Like most lotteries, Colorado has seen Scratch sales steadily migrate toward higher priced games. How do we protect our lower-priced games, while also investing in a variety of higher-priced games to appeal to a broad group of players? The Colorado Lottery will present the strategies we’ve developed to strengthen our lower price point games, along with our approach to our higher priced games to create an appealing portfolio of Scratch games at all price levels.
Will Russ, Products Manager, Texas Lottery Commission will present Higher Price Points in the Texas Portfolio. The speaker will give a presentation on the success of higher price points and how that has influenced the lottery’s portfolio development. Bullet points will include:
- Growth of the $20 price point
- Texas’s success with $50 price points
- $50 Loteria
- Introduction of the 1st $100 game
- Introduction of the $100 Loteria game
- Families
Lauren Luttrell, Product Manager, and Keith Macri, Draw Studio & Content Production Manager, at Massachusetts Lottery will present Now Playing: Billion Dollar Extravaganza. The Massachusetts Lottery recently launched its first $50 instant ticket, Billion Dollar Extravaganza. Featuring a $25 million top prize, an 82% payout, and 10 Second Chance Drawings, all unprecedented in Mass Lottery history, the game has been a smashing success, lifting instant ticket sales to record-setting heights. Utilizing its in-house creative team, the Mass Lottery developed and produced its own multi-media advertising campaign, positioning the ticket as the star of a newly released major motion picture. The TV spot reenacts iconic movie moments with the ticket as the hero and Lottery employees as the actors.
Interactive Break: Massachusetts Lottery
Panelists:
- Lauren Luttrell, Product Manager, Massachusetts Lottery
- Keith Macri, Draw Studio & Content Production Manager, Massachusetts Lottery
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
Marketing & Advertising Trends
The afternoon program will include two panels with lottery marketers to focus on opportunities for traditional game growth in FY24 as well as digital advertising opportunities.
Lottery Marketers Panel: Managing Traditional Lottery Growth in FY24
- Scott Chavkin, Marketing Director, Colorado Lottery
- Katherine Cundiff, VP, Product Development & Research, Georgia Lottery Corp.
- Will Russ, Products Manager, Texas Lottery
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine
How The Texas Lottery Deals with a Shrinking Ad Budget
Robert Tirloni, Lottery Operations Director, Texas Lottery will present How the Texas Lottery Deals with a Shrinking Ad Budget. This presentation will provide an overview of strategies the Texas Lottery has implemented to face a shrinking ad budget while trying to maintain its sales growth trajectory.
Adem Cengiz, Digital Communications Manager, North Carolina Education Lottery will present Using Social Media to Hype Your Audience. The NC Education Lottery recently gave our audience a truly memorable experience on social media. We created the Fire Vs Ice Live event, a live-streamed Facebook event with some unique ways for players to interact and win incredible prizes. During the three-hour show, we used pyrotechnics to melt a stylized ice sculpture highlighting the new “Fire” and “Ice” scratch-offs. Learn about how we got thousands of players to watch an entire 3-hour show of ice melting, and post 100,000+ comments sharing their excitement to participate in this unique show.
Lottery Marketers Panel: Digital Advertising Opportunities
- Tom Ackerman, Deputy Director, Marketing, Ohio Lottery
- Robert Tirloni, Lottery Operations Director, Texas Lottery
- Adem Cengiz, Digital Communications Manager, North Carolina Education Lottery
- Moderator: Terri Markle, Publisher, La Fleur’s Magazine