Public Gaming Magazine Sept/Oct 2021

27 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 What do you say to a director who might say that the ROI on a product-specific promotion is higher than it is for a digital engagement initiative when we are not authorized to sell lottery products online right now? J. Westbury: I would say that we need to find a way to do it all. I think everyone would agree that digital engagement is key to long-term sustainable growth. So, the issue is for us to identify short-term ROI from initiatives that are also necessary for long-term sustainability. It’s not easy and will not happen without deliberate thought and creativity. But for one thing, digital engagement most definitely does include promotions that support sales. For example, the Arizona Lottery does not sell lottery online. But they did create a game which is a digital extension of their instant Crossword games. They had a million and a half games played on it in the first two months that it was available. Players had to have purchased a ticket to play and be registered as a loyalty member. Sales of that Crossword game went up 8% over that same 2-month period. But importantly, all those retail players now had a digital connection to the Lottery through their favorite retail game. So digital engage- ment can and should include initiatives that support the long-term goal of sustain- ability and growth as well as drive short-term sales. As another example, we launched Struck By Luck, a really cool digital game, with the Florida Lottery in August. It’s a paper instant ticket where players can win instantly, but also has a feature that uses the science behind the curiosity gap to engage players in a digital experience and build anticipation of growing jackpot amounts. The game’s app and microsite extend the play on the digital platform which enables the Florida Lottery to create this digital conver- sation with their players. That’s what this is all really about – finding ways to have that digital conversation. Every time a lottery launches a digital program, whether it’s a second chance draw, whether it’s a loyalty platform, whether it’s an app attached to a retail game, they’re establishing a connection that provides an interactive dialogue with that player. That is when the one-to-many mass-market advertising is turned into a one-to-one personalized dialogue of sharing information that enhances the whole experience for the player. Sure, it includes product promotions but now they are being tailored to the more specific interests of the individual player. And now the two-way dialogue about other issues like responsible gaming and brand-building becomes more relevant to the player. So even though the tickets can’t be bought online, you can enable parts of the game to have an online experience, you can reinforce the positive feelings for Brand Lottery, and you can leverage the online connection to support your retailers. Are retailers beginning to recognize that iLottery sales do not cannibalize their business? J. Westbury: The fact is that iLottery actually helps to drive retail sales. The Michigan Lottery retail sales have grown faster than the national average in recent years right alongside the rapid growth of iLottery. And the Michigan experi- ence is being replicated in Virginia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and other iLottery states. iLottery literally helps to drive retail sales. And many of the apps we did with the Michigan Lottery prior to iLottery are still in place because they serve a valuable purpose of building the interactive relationship which ends up supporting retail sales as well as brand lottery. The Michigan Lottery has been using the Crossword game and the Wild Time™ scratch game for many years to encourage players to go back and forth between the retail and online worlds. What we know from implementing iLottery programs is that once we bring players into the lottery ecosystem and market effectively to them, they will move across channels. It goes to that notion of de-channelization. A Crossword player will play it online, they’ll play it in retail, and they’ll play it on their mobile app. And it’s all part of what they’re experiencing from the lottery. They’re not thinking about which “channel” they are playing on. They are just thinking about the game and the experience. They just expect to be able to play wherever, whenever, and however they want in whatever ways are most convenient. It might be on a paper ticket because I’m buying gas and I’m going to go into the store to buy my favorite Crossword ticket. It might mean that it’s on my phone as a second chance draw while I’m killing time waiting in line at the bank or an airport Starbucks, or it might mean that I actually have a few minutes to sit down at home and play it on my computer. Players don’t think about what channel they are on. They’re just thinking about playing the game. And the ready-access convenience piece of that game-playing experience is vital. So, Pollard Banknote and your clients are in fact creating digital engagement programs for non-iLottery jurisdictions that meet that high bar for delivering short- term ROI? J. Westbury: Absolutely. Lotteries cannot afford to divert limited resources towards initiatives that do not contribute to raising funds for their beneficiaries this quarter and next quarter. That is the top-of-mind metric of success in this business and it is the key metric that we hold ourselves accountable to. Thankfully, though, the properly balanced Continued on page 56 The world we live in is no longer separated by channels. The consumers’ world is inter-connected in a seamless flow, and we need to align ourselves, our products, our messaging and our product-delivery infrastructures with that world. The consumer is already in the digital mind-set that transcends the limiting concepts of channels and geographic location and other legacies from the analog world.