Turning nothing into a $45 million lottery game — Chris Rogers // Arizona Lottery

Quotes

• "We have 3,200 retail locations, and I think we have around 1900 locations with vending machines. The 45-million-dollar game is an instant game dispensed on a draw-style ticket, but the key difference here is that it is just like a scratcher." - Chris Rogers

• "In getting the game into people's hands, I think in our partnership with OH, one of the unique things we did was focus on retail advertising and education. We leveraged our street team in more than 400 retail locations to go out and show people how the game is played." - Chris Rogers

• "Having teams out there meant something to the people who were shopping and playing and the retailers themselves. They saw us as showing up and supporting what was a brand-new product line." - Chris Rogers

• "If you're launching a $50 game or like some states have launched a hundred-dollar games, you have to have a distribution network where that's going to make sense. And a state like Texas, where they're just so vast that a ticket like a hundred dollars game is successful. Other people have launched them as LTOs - limited-time only games too." - Chris Rogers

• "The recent uptick in inflation has impacted our lower-tier products. Because game lines like fast play, for example, are considered add-ons in the mind of a lottery player." - Chris Rogers

• "If you are a brand marketer and are thinking about the array of products you might have, let's say you're a brand manager at a massive brand like Procter and gamble. You have to think about those fringe products and how to use the core product to market and induce trial in some other brands that might be new, up and coming, like fast play." - Chris Rogers

• "As we're emerging from what was the depth of the pandemic, people have more entertainment choices. People are more comfortable going out to eat and to a concert. They're thinking about discretionary income while, at the same time, it is much more precious than it was a year ago." - Chris Rogers

• "We wanted to connect deeply with our players during the pandemic, so we couldn't pull advertising. We found a way to connect with people, even people, even those who had fallen through tough times. And we reached out and gave money to first responders and educators." - Chris Rogers

• "One of the first questions I had when I walked into this job was, is the average lottery player aging? Every brand has that relationship that people have with it and the length of that. And then there's the maturity factor of brands that play into it. For us, it's right around the eight-year mark." - Chris Rogers

• "We have a churn, but we also have goals to extend that life cycle. If that's the loop we've got, what are the pain points that lottery players have? And certainly winning opportunities are one of them. We love to address that by sharing the stories of our winners on social. Winners can remain anonymous." - Chris Rogers

• "Seven years ago, we had 30,000 followers, and now we were well into the 150,000 mark. But it's not really about the volume of players you have right now. Our job is to engage them. We create unique, entertaining content in some of the most mysterious ways." - Chris Rogers