The challenge

Since its inception in 1974, the Illinois Lottery has been a cornerstone of Illinois culture. However, the brand faced a challenge: while the Illinois Lottery had an app, public awareness of it and the app’s contribution to overall revenue were low. To stay relevant in today’s fast-paced digital entertainment landscape, the Illinois Lottery aimed to modernize its image and boost engagement through its app.

The solution

To address this challenge, dentsu X and DentsuCreative in partnership with Allwyn Illinois, the private manager of the Illinois Lottery, launched the “GET IT” campaign to capture the attention of younger, tech-savvy users. The campaign leveraged advanced audience-building techniques by tapping into Dynata’s data integration with Dentsu’s Merkledatabase, Merkury. This integration allowed for precise audience segmentation, based on behavioral data, past interactions, and attitudes, effectively reaching specific groups such as “Casual Gamers” and“Gamefluencers”.

Once the key audience segments were defined, Dynata and Dentsu executed custom research measuring lift in key brand metrics for the Illinois Lottery, focusing on their app. This work resulted insignificant lifts in awareness and familiarity with the Illinois Lottery and its app. It also showed an increase in lift for intent to download the app. These results were driven by both current Illinois Lottery players and prospective players. By employing time-of-day triggers and contextually relevant ads, Dentsu ensured that the messaging resonated with the audience at the most impactful moments. The campaign also harnessed a cross-platform media strategy, focusing on channels where techsavvy users were most active, including Snapchat, Meta, and Twitch. Complementing this, audio and video ads on platforms such as iHeartRadio and Spotify tapped into the audience’s passion for music, creating a seamless and engaging experience.

The impact

The “GET IT” campaign achieved remarkable results, transforming the Illinois Lottery’s brand image and driving impressive growth in mobile app engagement and online sales