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// Public Gaming International // March/April 2015
The consumer, the lottery’s customer, is in control. They have
a never ending supply of choice and access and an overwhelming
amount of communications, promotions and messages coming their
way. They want and expect more value for their purchases and more
from the companies with whom they do business. They are filtering,
focusing and controlling their access and choosing to engage (or not)
on their own terms. To break through the clutter and remain on the
must have list means putting them in the center and creating com-
munications, experiences and offerings inspired by and integrated
around them. Less mass, broad reach messaging and strategies and
more focused and uniquely relevant messaging and value.
It’s Just Games, Available Anytime,
Anywhere, Always New
To the customer, it isn’t draw
games or instant games or social
games or i-lottery games or video
games or casino or super casual
games. It’s simply games they like
to play. The games they like to play
today may quickly change to dif-
ferent games they like to play to-
morrow. Their games are kept fresh
by content and feature updates
and periodic big releases. They play games where they might have
chances to win real money or virtual coins or new characters or cre-
ate a virtual space with their friends. Their games are increasingly
being shopped for, played, paid for, redeemed and tracked on their
phones or at retail or on their tablets or their desktops or anywhere
they want. Many games can be played for free (with the option to
spend more to get more). Powerball and all lottery games are now
competing with the personalized and always new experiences of
mobile apps/games, the cross platform big budget efforts of video
games and the big brand, large communities of robust social games.
Reengaging existing and appealing to new audiences requires com-
peting within this new world of gaming.
Everything Influences the Purchase
According to McKinsey & Company’s 2014 Digitizing the Con-
sumer Decision Journey, two-thirds of all decisions cus-
tomers make are informed by the quality of their ex-
periences along their journey. The decision to buy
a Powerball ticket isn’t made at the reminder
of a jackpot amount. Instead it’s made by the
collection of all the experiences the customer
has had with the lottery. That path is often
filled with experiences at retail, in advertising,
with friends, on the web site, on social, with
customer service and more. TV, long a lottery
staple for awareness building, while still an im-
portant part of a media plan can no longer be counted on, at least on
its own. With an ever expanding amount of clutter and competitive
offerings, it’s more important than ever to map the customer journey
and identify the opportunities to make it easier, more valuable and
more enjoyable to buy, play and redeem lottery games.
Omnichannel, Around the Customer
To integrate around the customer means striving towards an om-
nichannel offering across offline and online touchpoints.
While each lottery may have unique omnichannel opportunities
(and challenges) depending upon what products and services are
being offered and the technologies and resources in place.
To deliver on expectations, marketing and sales plans (as well
as departments) will need to change their approach to customer
planning and deliver integrated plans that are less about pushing
campaigns and more about creating connections. That may look
different across lotteries, but what will look the same is that digital
will be the foundation of any customer centered strategy.
Digital is Far More than Transactions
or Communications
In fact, sales and marketing plans will increasingly be built around
leveraging digital as the space to connect, engage and more. Forrester
estimated that by 2018, digital will influence 60% of all sales, up from
54% today (source: Forrester Research Web-Influenced Retail Sales
Forecast 2013—2018). Up until now, digital has primarily meant such
things as the Loyalty or Subscription offering which had an
everyday reach of maybe 10% of the customer base.
For others, digital was merely one of many com-
munications channel through which messaging is
to be pushed. For most, there hasn’t been a clear
understanding of the value. In truth, digital is
all of these things and more. It’s a force that is
reshaping how customers search, find and en-
gage with each other and with the companies
with whom they choose to do business. While
formulas for value may still be in the process of
