10 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024 All continued on page 38 HOW DO THEY DO IT? New Mexico Lottery wins the NASPL Best New Instant Game Award for the third year in a row! David Barden Chief Executive Officer, New Mexico Lottery Paul Jason: Part of the genius of NM Lottery’s Guy Fieri Instant Ticket campaign is the low cost. Tell us a little about your advertising budget and the process you went through to figure out how to create a big-bang, awardwinning, 360-degree production within such a small budget. David Barden: When I started working at the New Mexico Lottery, I challenged the marketing team to overhaul our media buys so that we bought media for an entire year, versus spot campaigns. Together our Marketing team and Advertising agency negotiated media partnerships that literally doubled the value of our ad dollars with low and no charge spots. And we were no longer tied to specific flight windows tied to specific products. The annual media buys allow for flexibility for launch schedule changes, jackpot runups, and exciting promotions that pop up. We also benefit from what I consider a “boutique-like” in-house design department which I modeled after similar experiences I had in other lotteries. I encourage creativity and provide the tools they need to produce all the creative we distribute. We have a sound studio, large format printer, large work area, and computers that can process massive media files. All our creative (radio, TV, point-ofsale, digital ads) are written, designed, and produced by in-house Lottery Marketing staff. Because the work is created in house, we are nimble. We have speed on our side. And because we are a small organization, we can quickly obtain stakeholder review and get other divisions involved. Tell us about the specific things you did to create the feeling of a big-budget product and campaign? D. Barden: Wendy Ahlm, Director of Advertising and Marketing, would say we start with “Lamborghini dreams.” She and Karla Wilkinson, our Gaming Products Director, collaborate to come up with a massive list of anything they can think of that would promote the game, excite players, and be fun. This begins with a marriage of the product and a series of ‘what if’s’ that spin from brainstorming, internet searches, and life experiences. They start the conversation, get everyone excited about the topic, and encourage other ideas and threads from the rest of their teams. Carolyn Cabell, NMLA COO, and I then rein the ideas into the “SUV dreams” level. We narrow the list to what we can reasonably achieve with our small team and a limited budget. Even then, the group takes on an amazing number of initiatives. PGRI INTERVIEWS Turn to Page 38 for the full menu of initiatives implemented by the New Mexico Lottery to produce the awardwinning Guy Fieri Instant Ticket campaign. That is familiar territory for the New Mexico Lottery as 2024 is the third year in a row that they have won the prestigious NASPL Best New Instant Ticket Award. What makes this threepeat so amazing is that, with a total population of just over two million, the state of New Mexico is not a big lottery with a big budget. The opposite, really. Costs are minimized as almost all of the ideation, creative, design, production, and implementation is done inhouse. How do they do it? Read our interview with David Barden and turn to pages 38 thru 43 to find out!
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