In a scene reminiscent of a mad scientist’s lair, picture Christian Teja, Director of Communications, and Keith Macri, Draw Studio and Content Production Manager of the Massachusetts Lottery in their new production studio. They want to make lottery advertising better: more efficient, more flexible, and more budget-friendly.
“Out of necessity arose opportunity,” Teja says. In an industry with shrinking ad budgets, their efforts may be viewed as unconventional and outside the box, but their methods of madness are paying off in big ways. After bringing most of their content production in-house, they have produced seven TV commercials to date. Before, it would have cost them close to $1 million, but it only cost them an estimated $50,000. Now, they are creating two and a half content pieces every day that are further broken up into an army of content for different channels such as TV, radio, OOH, short-form content, and video adaptations for video boards in addition to static ones.
One example is their latest TV commercial, dubbed “The Mad Multiplier,” which they showcased at La Fleur’s Raleigh Conference. (Watch the full presentation here.) Every year, the Lottery releases their popular multiplier tickets. Two years ago, they introduced the character of a mad scientist, played by Teja himself, who toils in his “lab,” devising ways to multiply winnings for lottery players. The commercial humorously contrasts his efforts with reality when his wife points out that he hasn’t successfully multiplied anything.
Following the success of this campaign, Massachusetts has just launched a sequel, bringing the Mad Multiplier back in action, showcased below. This time, he comically multiplies himself, while the tickets continue to multiple players’ winnings. At the Raleigh conference, Macri stated that the first commercial was their “swan song,” but the sequel represents the culmination of their efforts to bring all content production in-house by the end of this fiscal year.
While Teja may struggle in the lab, he’s got a winning formula for in-house marketing.