Taking the Lottery from Game to Experience
More Ways to Play
Hoosier Lottery
Playing the lottery is an experience. Win or lose, it’s always fun to play, whether you’re matching little fruit on a Scratch-off or waiting to see if your numbers hit it big in the Jackpot game.
$1.09B
Record scratch-off
sales for FY 2019.
412%
First-year increase
in engagements.
19%
Increase in 2019
sales over goal.
The Big Idea
When we took over as the Hoosier Lottery’s Digital AOR, we set out to extend the experience long past ticket interaction through digital media—not simply with passive display and social, but by creating experiences that inspire participation, discovery, engagement, and pride in the Hoosier Lottery’s state contributions.
Loyalty is a two-way street.
By creating fun digital experiences for players in coordination with new Scratch-off releases, we continued to show Hoosiers that we are dedicated to helping them have fun. And the interest we took in players was returned. Our very first digital activation, Hoosier Holiday Mystery, received close to 7,000 entries, reporting a growth of 300% compared to the average Hoosier Lottery promotion, a 25% surge in the Hoosier Lottery’s active myLOTTERY loyalty program users and a 62% increase in 2nd Chance ticket entries compared to the previous year’s holiday campaign.
Keeping the games coming.
Hoosier Lottery players like games. So to give them more chances to play, we created a new kind of Hoosier game. Actually, we created quite a few—all delivered through a modernized website with a ‘mobile-first’ mindset. We sent players on a virtual reality scavenger hunt to promote Gem Multiplier tickets. When the 7s Family of tickets was released, we developed a series of immersive Save The Sevens missions where players helped the 7s stop Crazy 8.
And when The Metals tickets hit stores, we created a Shining Snapshot scavenger hunt game to go along with them. With a secondary objective of encouraging players to join the myLOTTERY loyalty program, we also engineered a corresponding CRM program utilizing data and test-and-learn methodologies to keep players engaged through meaningful, perfectly timed messages.
Turning engagement into community.
With engagement and loyalty on the rise, we used the Hoosier Lottery’s 30th anniversary to connect with players on another level—by showcasing how the lottery connects thousands of Hoosiers through play. We also mentioned a few of the many ways the Hoosier Lottery bolsters local communities all across Indiana, like giving hundreds of millions of dollars each year to the Build Indiana Fund, Police & Firefighters’ Pensions and the Indiana Teachers’ Retirement Fund collectively and paying out nearly $800M to winners in FY 2019.
Why It Worked
People like to interact with brands they feel connected to. And by helping to shift the Hoosier Lottery from a product-focused company into an experiential brand, we were able to forge a deeper connection with players. And that connection translated to measurable sales growth. In fact, the Hoosier Lottery surpassed $1 billion in Scratch-off sales for the first time in history. Of course, it also didn’t hurt that we used marketing automation and personalization, performance tracking, player input and data collected along the way to continually enhance our messaging and touch points, deepen engagement and better reach and connect with Hoosier Lottery players of all kinds.
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