Page 24 - Public Gaming International September/October 2017

INTERVIEWS Wendy

PUBLIC GAMING MONTGOMERY

Senior Vice President

Lottery and IGaming, Ontario Lottery & Gaming

Focusing on the Whole Consumer Experience

PGRI Introduction: can be most attractive and engaging for the We celebrate the acquisition of new consumer
It may be called the “Store of the modern consumer. We get there with tech- groups when high jackpots bring out the casual
Future” strategy. But OLG’s massive nology and availability. players and attract first-time players. But are
undertaking to reshape the customer we leveraging that event to convert that casual
journey is about much more than There is significant potential for OLG player into a frequent player, and the first-time
modernizing the in-store shopping to apply technology to change the way player into a casual or more frequent player?
experience. It’s about reimagining our the player experiences the games—not to
business and building a new and differ- mention how the entire interaction between Wendy Montgomery:
ent kind of relationship with the modern us and the retailer can be revitalized. As There is the cost of acquiring the customer,
consumer. Of course it involves the an industry, we need to accelerate the rate i.e. what it costs to get a player to play one
application of omni-channel modeling, at which we apply technology to modern- time. And then there is the lifetime value
digitization of the in-store shopping ize the whole lottery playing experience and of the customer, i.e. how much does that
experience, integration of online and make the customer journey more appealing customer play in the future. For example, we
off-line, and all the initiatives that we and interesting. The fundamental purpose see increased player-ship of new and infre-
should all be pursuing. But mostly it of enhanced technology is a more engaged quent players when jackpots are high. (The
is about clarifying the focus to bring customer. Simple things like downloading value of high jackpots is partly measured by
everything together to deliver genuine the OLG apps to check winning tickets, sign- the huge bump in sales, improving our profit
value to the customer. ing up for newsletters and joining a Players to Ontario.) An equally important goal,
Club are all ways to help that engagement though, is to make sure we use that market-
build. Adding digital menu boards and digi- ing event to increase the lifetime value of the
tal play-stations will also reshape the retail customer. It is an opportunity to deliver a
shopping and lottery playing experience. player experience that will cause the casual
Focusing on the entire customer journey will player to play more and the first-time player
enhance the overall value proposition. The to want to play again.
‘store of the future’ is really an omni-channel
experience with digital connection between When the jackpot rises it is especially evident
Paul Jason: the consumer and OLG at every step along how incredibly powerful the value proposi-
Could you describe OLG’s “store of the future” the journey. tion of the game itself really is. Winning a
strategy to modernize the overall player life-changing jackpot has cross-demographic
experience. I also think it’s about creating much more appeal and that includes all varieties of the
diversity in terms of how and where lottery modern consumer. It is the large jackpots
Wendy Montgomery: products are made available. Now it’s multi- that create the buzz and the excitement and
Conceptually, we think of the “store” as lane selling in grocery stores and large format attract the first-time players to OLG. That’s
being the face of OLG to the consumer. We stores, non-traditional venues and, of course, as true for today as it has been throughout
want to reimagine how the face of lottery on mobile. our history.

24 // PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL // SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2017