We knew we needed to create a whole new vibe around the brand if we were going to stand out in an app heavy, post-Covid world. We needed a platform big enough to change player behavior and bring the authentic Illinois player energy to life—so we anchored our strategy around a new brand belief that aligned with our players’ mindset: “When you play different, you win” 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. Our audience insights revealed that our prospects were music fanatics, so we brought GET IT to life with a new anthem spot and original soundtrack from one of Illinois’ very own Lottery players, up and coming hip hop artist Drew the Kiiid, making our tentpole media activation central to the brand ethos and a platform future players would be able to rally around.
The integrated “Get It” campaign features an ongoing, vibrant, and dynamic ad series with messaging that’s transforming the Lottery from a bunch of games that play by old rules to a forward-thinking, dynamic, entertainment brand. Drew’s radio-breaking debut, the song and the visual identity of the campaign have resulted in “Big Download Energy” for the app, driving interest and stoking excitement among a new generation of users who can play anywhere, anytime, in Illinois.
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 plastered high-density, foot-traffic-dominant locations around Chicago with eye-catching postings.
Alongside our universal creative used in traditional media, we conducted primary audience research, identifying four unique prospecting cohorts for which we built dynamic, personalized creative for addressable channels, ultimately delivering a 13% lift in CTR when compared to our universal creative 2 . We delivered personalized creative with mobile-first tactics and partners such as Spotify, Meta, Snapchat, and The Trade Desk, as well as audience reach drivers including Reddit and Twitch.
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.
Objective #1: Grow Brand Reappraisal Among Younger Players by lifting “Brand Appeal” metrics by 5 or more points
Brand appeal was 13+ percentage points higher among those who recalled the Get It campaign than recallers of the prior digital campaign.
Objective #2: Increased App Installs & Opens vs. YA
Installs by platform increased following each wave of the campaign, helping Illinois Lottery see an overall increase of 35%.
Attributed app installs increased by 25%.
First app opens were also up 22% following the initial phase of the launch - meaning the campaign drove interest among lapsed players already aware of the app.
Objective #3: Increased Weekly Playership
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.
During the Get It campaign, the IL Lottery app saw a 27% increase in Android app downloads and a 22% increase in total Android app revenue as compared to the same timeframe preceding launch.
iLottery performance delivered a record high in FY23 with sales of $516m, up $96m / 23% vs. budget as compared to the year prior4, pointing to expedited growth in the digital sector aided by our continued push of iLottery messaging through the “Get It” media launch.
