Public Gaming International May/June 2020

51 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • MAY/JUNE 2020 towards cashless options and to migrate to digital “play-slips” in order to deliver contactless lottery playing experiences. Consumers may also look to use stylus- type devices to play at gaming kiosks like vending and video gaming machines without having to touch them. ere are lots of adjustments like this that will need to be considered by players and operators to recast the mechanical logistics involved without impairing the enjoyment of the player experience. Wendy: We can expect new consumer trends that enable more contactless experiences across the countless environments that we interact with every day. Perhaps we could renew e orts to get consumers to register and receive their winning lottery payment directly into their bank account instead of having to go to a retail store or claim center. Of course, the same communication channel is used to deliver jackpot notices to your mobile device. is should be a time of renewed energy and ingenuity. I believe the consumer marketplace will be more receptive than ever to new ways to make life better than it used to be. Lottery has always done quite well with “small-ball” incremental improvements. e gravity of this crisis is profound but that does not mean we should stop stretching to look for opportunities to improve the player experience, get creative on the promotional front, and bring new consumer groups into lottery. How fast will Lottery bounce back from this lock-down? Wendy: It has been observed that Lottery has not su ered as much as other sectors in past recessions. is situation is quite di erent though, so we probably need to give even more special attention to making sure we do everything we can to preserve player engagement and playership. For one thing, we need to be prepared for the possibility of a deeper economic recession that will impinge upon discretionary spending. For another, even in the deepest recessions, we always had social communion and interaction to help us through. Now even that is a problem. It threatens the whole lottery playing model since the vast majority of lottery is played at retail. Further to that, consider the aspect in which lottery is often an impulse purchase. Well, if the player stops playing because they are not going to the store as frequently – how readily will she/he return to regular play as a form of entertainment? Normal routines and behavioral sequences are being broken and need to be rebuilt. ere is a lot to think about, and lots of considerations, but we’re on it! We have faced challenges before and, just as before, we will apply the talent, energy, and resourcefulness to create solutions and execute well-conceived action plans. We need to create opportunity for people to re-engage with experiences that delivered joy before and perhaps build new ones to replace behavior patterns that are being left behind. Michelle: We may need to explore some new media outlets that will likely be a part of our social interacting universe going forward. How can we engage players and perhaps make the games themselves available in new and engaging ways for consumers who are adopting other lifestyle changes? As we emerge from crisis management mode and into building a sustainable future mode, it will be more vital than ever to look outside of our industry for insights into how the world is changing and the innovative success strategies being applied to adapt. It will be our job to synthesize inputs from all varieties of sources with our own deep insights into the lottery industry to create new solutions to meet the needs of an evolving world. e Expectation Economy presentation was rst delivered by IGT in early February, at the WLA/EL Marketing Seminar in London, before the crisis began to transform our world. Its premise that genuine market leadership will be required even for survival was a prediction about the future. Hasn’t this crisis leap-frogged us into that future where second-best is no longer a viable role? Michelle: e underlying drivers of the Expectation Economy - anticipating consumer behavioral trends so needs are met before they even are known by the consumer – will be radically accelerated by the crisis. Legacy ways of doing business will not be as e ective, so there will be little incentive to hold on to them. ere will be more freedom to innovate and progress at a more rapid rate because we have no choice but to leave the old ways behind and move forward. For instance, there will likely be even more incentive for Lottery and Retail to collaborate on cross-promotions that incent lottery play at the store on the one hand, and drive our digital audience back into the stores on the other. In some jurisdictions such as Texas, our sales and marketing team works directly with retail associations, which expedites the job of scaling up with large numbers of retailers. I think we will continue with simple co-op promos like buy X and get Y, but I hope we move into more creative use of multiple channels of both distribution and media to engage the consumer in new and unexpected ways. Retailers will need our support more than ever and that represents an industry opportunity to escalate the level of cooperation and derive more value from the relationship we have with retail partners. I think we will be able to get our retailers to understand that a liating with Lottery enhances their own brand equity. Wendy: We wonder if social distancing will cause shoppers to prefer fewer visits with more dwell time in the store to make sure they get everything they need. Walmart and other stores that enable one-stop shopping might further increase their appeal in the post-coronavirus world. Self-serve Ticket Vending Machines might become more attractive to shoppers who are already accustomed to self-service in other consumer transactions. I think we have a window of opportunity to consolidate our relationship with our retail partners. ey are in a state of ux, with intensi ed competition from the online channel making them more receptive to new ideas that will help them survive and thrive. Retailers will be much more willing than before to change and innovate with us to meet the needs of the modern consumer and succeed in the Expectation Economy. e main thing is that while lottery may be a discretionary purchase, the funding it provides to good causes is essential. As we move into some challenging economic times, we need to make sure the general public and our political constituents continue to appreciate that. Our stakeholders – retailers, players, and bene ciaries – know this and we should enlist their advocacy to make sure that lottery continues to be enjoyed and viewed as a simple pleasure and beloved part of the fabric of society. ■