Previously, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) marketers believed the
single most important moment in a purchasing decision came at the “First
Moment of Truth,” those first few seconds when a customer walked in the
store, viewed an array of products, and then made their selection.
Now, digital marketers are all singing a Google-inspired mantra: the
“Zero Moment of Truth” (ZMOT).
ZMOT describes how, in this new age of digital marketing, so much
of what used to happen at the store level is now occurring online.
While online, consumers are comparing prices, scanning reviews, ab-
sorbing digital advertising and, in some cases, making actual purchases.
For those who still visit a store, their purchasing decisions—even many
of the ‘impulse’ buys that lotteries have relied on for so long—have
been made before they walk in the front doors.
Jim Lecinski, Google’s managing director of US Sales, believes that
many CPG organizations are simply “not keeping pace” with the cur-
rent digital marketing strategies.
“The way we shop is changing,” Lecinski wrote in Winning the Zero
Moment of Truth. “Whether we’re shopping for corn flakes, concert
tickets or a honeymoon in Paris, the Internet has changed how we de-
cide what to buy.”
What implications does the ZMOT have for lotteries?
NeoPollard Interactive, a strategic alliance between Pollard Banknote,
a world leader in instant lottery products, and NeoGames, a global pur-
veyor of Internet lottery and gaming platforms, believes lotteries must
compete at that ZMOT to broaden playership and optimize revenues for
good causes.
At NeoPollard Interactive, we often talk about the influences that
“prime the purchase,” the consumer cues that determine decision-mak-
ing in the bricks and mortar retail environment.
Lotteries have relied on traditional advertising and marketing strate-
gies such as billboards, TV, radio, and print ads to get people thinking
about lottery products well before arriving at a retailer.
However, with so much of the retail experience moving online, it’s
essential for lotteries to establish a digital marketing presence.
Forward-thinking lotteries are deploying a suite of interactive solu-
tions to engage their customers across a broad array of sales channels,
including digital streams. This is the new lottery “ecosystem”—a net-
work that extends from traditional bricks and mortar retail, to interac-
tive applications where money is not exchanging hands, to a full online
gaming platform.
Competing at the ZMOT can be intimidating, particularly if digital
marketing has not played a significant role in a lottery’s sales strategies.
Many lotteries are concerned an evolved and evolving digital solution
will be costly, time consuming and disruptive to the existing, traditional
sales networks.
Fortunately, great strides have been made in helping lotteries com-
pete at the ZMOT.
“There was a time when talking about digital marketing would have
meant hiring your own team of programmers and developing an Inter-
net version of a game or an app or other significant digital asset from
scratch,” said Moti Malul, Executive Vice President, Business Develop-
ment at NeoPollard Interactive.
“The reality is that we’ve been tackling this challenge for years now.
It’s not necessary for lotteries to build from scratch. You can make the
move to digital in small, predictable and stable steps forward.”
Doug Pollard, Co-Chief Executive Officer at NeoPollard Interactive,
said an increasing number of lotteries have discovered that the path to
a digital presence is through innovative ‘Space Between’ products that
exist between bricks and mortar retail and the purchase of lottery prod-
ucts over the Internet.
With its lottery partners, NeoPollard Interactive has developed a
wide range of options: online “Second Chance” drawings; highly pop-
ular “Players Clubs;” Social Instants
™
, an instant game that leverages
social media channels; and WebPlay
™
games and informational apps,
among others.
One of the best examples of the ‘Space Between’ concept at work is
the suite of highly popular WebPlay
™
games, which allow players to
access additional play online via QR or other codes for fun or to acquire
Players Club points, coupons or other prizes. By registering for online
play, lotteries can track and leverage a player database to build loyalty.
This allows lotteries for the first time to build loyalty through a true one-
to-one relationship with their customers.
The Michigan Lottery is a prime example of how a ‘Space Between’
approach can create a broad player database, foster ongoing engage-
ment and set the stage for a full move to online games.
The Michigan Lottery’s loyalty program was introduced in 2005 and
rebranded in 2010 as the Players Club. In 2011, it did a major online re-
launch of its second-chance program as “Play It Again,” where players
could enter non-winning ticket codes for points that could be used for
entries for a contest to win $1 million.
In 2012, the Players Club was used to support the launch of “Cash-
word WebPlay,” an app that allows players to use a QR code or visit a
website to play for Players Club points or lottery coupons, with no addi-
tional purchase. A play for fun option with no ticket purchase necessary
was also available.
These online options boosted total Cashword weekly sales by nearly
40 percent in the two months after launch. More importantly, the player
database revealed that nearly two-thirds of all online players were be-
tween 18 and 34 years old, a key demographic in the continuing quest
to broaden playership.
While the Michigan Lottery has been accelerating sales support efforts
on all fronts, digital is contributing to some impressive results. For ex-
ample, sales of Michigan Lottery instant game tickets were up 7.2 percent
in FY 2013 over FY 2012, which is much higher than the average instant
game ticket growth rate for U.S. lotteries over the same period.
The Michigan Lottery has become an industry leader in the digital
space, delivering a steady stream of newer and more innovative ‘Space
Between’ options. The establishing companies of NeoPollard Interac-
tive won a contract to provide online game services to the Michigan
Lottery and the formal launch of online games is scheduled for the
fourth quarter of this year.
The Michigan Lottery’s success has sparked broad industry interest in
‘Space Between’ products. Three other NASPL lotteries have launched
Cashword WebPlay
™
apps with their crossword-themed instant tickets,
with several others ready to follow suit in the coming months.
Clearly, an increasing number of lotteries are already competing at the
ZMOT, to remain relevant and engage the widest base of players possible.
That may still seem like a daunting task, especially for lotteries that
may have experienced challenges with the first wave of digital market-
ing. But as the Michigan Lottery and other lotteries are demonstrating,
the payoff for winning that ZMOT can be enormous.
u
Is it Time for Lotteries to Face the
Zero Moment of Truth?
73
September/October 2014 • Public Gaming International
