The Challenge
Since 1973, The Illinois Lottery has been a source of fun and entertainment for Illinoisans. However while many people had fond memories of playing the Lottery, younger generations of players felt less connected to the brand.
To combat this, Illinois Lottery began promoting their app as a way to play the Lottery on-demand like never before. However, with relatively low awareness of online play, we needed to get people to both start seeing the Illinois Lottery in a new light – and, playing it differently (on their phone).
The Strategy
We needed a platform big enough to change player behavior, so we anchored our strategy around a new brand belief that aligned with our players’ mindset and created a brand tone we lovingly referred to as “Midwestern Fierce.” Out of this, our creative idea, GET IT, was born. An anthemic and playful platform and call-to-action that encourages people to play differently in the moment and in their lives.
As a musically-driven campaign, we prioritized audio and video placements to bring the vibrancy to life. iHeart played an instrumental role (no pun intended), not only delivering unparalleled reach, but custom activations like our live ad and concert performances for Drew the Kiiid + Illinois Lottery.
We also saw our prospect audience over-indexed as Spotify users, so we built a fully owned and branded playlist – including a song by Drew the Kiiid, our anthem artist. Because we were promoting the Illinois Lottery mobile app, owning spaces dominated by mobile phone usage was key, so we focused on high-density, foot-traffic-dominant locations around Chicago with eye-catching postings.
The Results
GET IT exceeded expectations. It not only helped us meet all our marketing objectives but increased overall revenue and playership by week throughout the duration of the campaign.
The Campaign delivered a 47% net increase in in-app Registrations across Android, proving that not only was it effective at driving downloads, but that it was creating net new players for the Illinois Lottery App.
iLottery performance delivered a record high in FY23 with sales up 23% compared to the year prior, pointing to expedited growth in the digital sector aided by our continued push of iLottery messaging through the “Get It” media launch.
- 35% Increase in installs by platform
- 25% Attributed app installs increase
- 13+ Brand Appeal
