spirit of our times. We changed that and gave
it a sweeping look with lots of confetti and
vibrant colors. We feel very good about that.
We knew it needed to be done, that it would
be successful, and we take personal pride
for having done it. This was our team effort,
our own advertising firm, our own marketing
people, and we did it together for our own
business - the Missouri Lottery. The time
and energy we put into it created a result that
is unique to the Missouri Lottery. Not to be
philosophical, but we value that uniqueness
and the sense that there is a soul to the Mis-
souri Lottery that is in fact not interchange-
able with all the other lotteries. There is a big
part of us that does not want to be subsumed
into a national brand.
Gary Gonder, the Lottery’s chief branding
officer, focuses on strengthening, extending,
and enhancing the Missouri Lottery brand.
He and our advertising agency are not think-
ing about national consumer markets. Their
focus is on how to appeal to and person-
ally connect with the people of Missouri.
A number of state lotteries are applying a
similar focus on brand identity and image
and use that as a cornerstone for guiding
the marketing decisions. Cindy O’Connell,
for instance, wrapped a whole re-branding
campaign around her logo change and to
great effect. It translated directly into robust
sales increases over the past three years. The
mission of state lotteries is to build all the
brands for the purpose of increasing sales in
their own state.
There is a similarity between this sense of
state ownership of their brand identity with
the state’s rights to control their own regula-
tory policies. The conviction that we do not
want to turn over the right to control our des-
tiny in the realm of regulatory policy could
also apply to marketing and all other aspects
of managing the business. We all have a deep
sense of pride and personal responsibility
towards our in-state constituents and it defi-
nitely is a sense of home-town pride. We are
proud of our own sports franchises and feel
that they are unique. We are proud of our in-
dividual state culture and feel that it is unique.
And you can see the differences among all the
state logos and the way each lottery presents
itself to the public. Some want to be more
conservative, and others want to be more cre-
atively adventurous. It can be thought of as a
states’ right issue on the marketing front just
as in the political front.
So those are some of the reasons why
we all tend to be provincial. The reality is,
though, that the question could be re-framed.
Does creating national brands, with consis-
tent messaging that appeals to all consumers
across the country conflict with a lottery’s
desire to create an identity unique to their
state, unique to their business? The reason
there is no conflict is that most lotteries have
a large portfolio of in-state games and a wide
berth for creating their own individual state
lottery brand and unique identity. Lotteries
can and will continue to brand their games
and their own state lottery. And that branding
will emphasize the local culture and unique-
ness. The national brands should have na-
tional brand messaging, marketing and pro-
motional campaigns that are conceived for
national consumer appeal, consistency in the
logos, and standardized systems for distribu-
tion. They should not be particularized for
each local market because that is inefficient
from an operations and distribution point of
view, and ineffective from a consumer mar-
keting point of view. Fortunately, the com-
monalities to consumer behavior far exceed
the differences, and we can focus on those
commonalities as the basis for effective na-
tional marketing and advertising campaigns.
And all that can be done without compromis-
ing each individual lottery’s focus on creat-
ing its own unique identity and branding.
Even Powerball and Mega Millions are
branded to appeal to local markets. Mo-
nopoly Millionaires’ Club is different in
the sense that states lotteries are required
to comply with the agenda to build a truly
national brand, isn’t it?
M. Scheve Reardon:
Monopoly Mil-
lionaires’ Club is designed to have much
more consistency in branding, messaging,
and overall marketing. There will be much
tighter control over the logo which will look
the same wherever you go.
I am sometimes asked what does it mat-
ter, why do we need nation-wide consis-
tency when our market is confined to the
borders of our state.
M. Scheve Reardon:
Because our con-
sumers and distributers expect us too. My
children actually noticed and commented
on the difference in the way the Powerball
logo looked as we travelled from one state
to another. They are just not used to the con-
cept that a huge consumer brand would be
different in different states. It would be like
driving intoArkansas and seeing McDonalds
with purple arches instead of golden arches,
or Coke cans that aren’t red. Of course, noth-
ing surprises me when I drive into Arkansas,
but I probably would be less likely to drive
into a McDonalds with purple arches. Not
only would I be less likely to buy at McDon-
alds with the purple arches, the dissonance of
that image with what I am used to would stay
with me. And that dissonance is not what a
marketer is trying to achieve. It impairs the
whole brand image we work so hard to build.
We want to leverage each brand impression,
regardless of its origin and consumer touch-
point, to create positive thoughts and feel-
ings, not dissonance and wondering why
something is other than what I expected it
to be. When you see those golden arches,
you not only instantly know what it is, you
make an emotional connection that rein-
forces the positive feelings about that brand.
And that happens whether you stop there and
buy something right then, or not. We want
to build that positive emotional connection
to Monopoly Millionaires’ Club. Whenever
you see the Monopoly Millionaires’ logo on
a billboard or a website, the positive impres-
sion is reinforced in your mind and that stays
with you and builds over time. You won’t
have to read the words or anything. You’ll
just see the top hat and colors and instantly
know what it is. And I do think these basic
principles of branding should be applied to
Powerball and Mega Millions too.
McDonalds is such a great example. Inso-
far as these ideas apply to the new National
Premium Game, why wouldn’t they also ap-
ply to Powerball and Mega Millions?
M. Scheve Reardon:
Remember that
Powerball has been around for decades and
so may be tied to some legacy policies, and
states may feel like they have developed
their own in-state brand for Powerball that
trumps the benefits of nation-wide consis-
tency. Frankly, we should all get together and
decide that legacy policies that don’t support
the long-term value of the brand should be
changed. We should explore the possibility
of applying to Powerball and Mega Millions
some of the ideas that are being applied to
Monopoly Millionaires’ Club. Perhaps the
success of those ideas in Monopoly will be
the catalyst to transfer some of them over to
PB and Mega as well. But the main thing is
that we saw some things like the need for
consistency in logos, and built them into the
new National Premium Game. For that mat-
ter, we probably will learn some new things
Public Gaming International • September/October 2014
12
