The Florida Lottery’s games are designed to thrill, and the new X THE CASH Scratch-Offs are no exception. With life-changing prizes, an exciting multiplier feature, and contributions to Florida education through Bright Futures Scholarships, these games offer more than just a chance to win—they make a difference. However, while playing a Scratch-Off is an exciting experience for players, the act of scratching the ticket can look ordinary to an outsider.
Our challenge was simple: show what playing the new Florida Lottery game feels like and connect with a modern, social-first audience in an authentic and compelling way. The campaign's success would be determined by the ticket sales, as the ultimate business objective, alongside players’ awareness, measured by campaign reach and a Meta multi-cell brand lift study.
Scratching a lottery ticket doesn’t look as thrilling as it feels. Our solution? To elevate the act of playing into a thrilling spectacle - place players in extreme, adrenaline-pumping situations to mirror the emotional rush of the game.
We chose Instagram Reels as the ideal platform—raw, authentic, and perfect for sharing the excitement of our new Scratch-Offs. Instead of following the category’s norm of polished, traditional ads resized for social media, we focused on capturing real emotions. We embraced a gritty, unscripted aesthetic, native to the platform and leveraged it in bespoke social-first assets.
To capture the thrill of playing X THE CASH, we gave a few lucky Florida Lottery players the chance to play the new games—while riding shotgun in a race car speeding around an F1-style track.
With a skeleton crew and nimble camera equipment, we captured unscripted moments of joy, exhilaration, and laughter. These candid reactions brought the excitement of playing to life in a way audiences could feel and relate to.
In partnership with Meta, we optimized every creative decision to speak the language of social media. From storytelling formats and pacing, to aspect ratios and captions, every element was designed to connect with digital-first audiences and maximize engagement on Instagram Reels.
We’ve reached millions of players. Meta recognized the campaign’s success with a custom success story case study, highlighting its 16% lower cost per result and 6.8-point higher brand lift due to creative efficiency and native execution.
The new X THE CASH Scratch-Offs became the top-selling games in every price point within a week of launch, generating $527,906,715 in sales. This success helped the Florida Lottery maintain its position as the top lottery in the nation. Most importantly, those sales fueled one of the largest contributions ever to Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship Program, providing $91.43 million to students across the state.
This campaign didn’t just show the thrill of playing—it redefined what lottery advertising can be in the digital age.
RESULTS IN NUMBERS
*During the campaign flight 1/15/24 - 4/7/24.
