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Illinois Lottery Eyes Impact with Denstu Creative Appointment

15/12/2022
Advertising Agency
New York, USA
126
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Lottery seeks increased efficiency through integration, expanding dentsu’s remit beyond 2019 media AOR duties

“We’re constantly looking to modernise with our products and services, while building upon the strong foundation of our nearly 50-year-old brand,” shares Illinois Lottery director of communications, Meghan Powers. “dentsu put forward a tight, integrated team. And, the time and care and creativity put into the pitch was apparent - they made us feel special and understood the balance we need to strike as we evolve our brand and grow our playbase.” 

Dentsu Creative’s appointment adds upon media AOR duties the network picked up in October of 2019. 

The immediate remit for the new partnership is to build on the Lottery’s recent track record and to continue broadening its playerbase. With record sales over the past two years and record returns to the State of Illinois in FY22, the Department of Lottery and its operating partner, Camelot Illinois, are focused on driving responsible and sustainable growth to maximise revenue for the State of Illinois to support K-12 education and good causes.     

“The brief for Illinois Lottery felt personal and familiar,” says Dentsu Creative U.S. president Laurel Flatt, who oversees the network’s Chicago hub. “We’re out to create the future of what marketing can be at Dentsu Creative, and the Illinois Lottery’s business isn’t just traditional brick and mortar retail—there’s fun to be had across retail, digital and omniplay offerings. The game’s changing. For the Lottery to show up and stand out in new ways, it demands creative and media disciplines lock arms with the brand.” 

According to Powers, the Lottery is eager to reap the benefits associated with having multiple services within a single network join forces:

  • Increased access to data and insights from a unified tech stack to power personalisation
  • Proactive optimisation avenues for ad placements 
  • Unified strategic backbone as integrated creative and media team can readily navigate shifting campaign dollars and timelines

In the U.S., 59% of dentsu’s top 100 clients work with at least two of the network’s three core service disciplines—Creative, Media and CXM. That percentage jumps to 68% when looking at how clients across the Across the Americas region (including the U.S., Toronto and LATAM) leverage dentsu’s network.

“The road to great work is paved with clarity and candour from brands. The foundation for what comes next was set by Illinois Lottery and Camelot never holding back, telling us what they loved and hated throughout the pitch,” adds Dentsu Creative ECD, Michael Straznickas. “For an Illinois-based team, this is a ‘hell-yeah win.’ We can’t wait for people to see how we’re leaning into our Illinois community as only the Illinois Lottery can.”

The first campaign under the new partnership is expected to launch in spring of 2023. The RFP was distributed in May and final decisions were made in late July after two rounds of pitches to the Lottery and its operating partner, Camelot Illinois.

The immediate remit for the new partnership is growing the brand’s digital presence via its iLottery platform, which announced sales exceeded $191 million in its 2022 Fiscal Year Annual Report for the first through third quarters—a 52% year-over-year increase for the same period.

“It was evident our media specialists had built a profound partnership with Illinois Lottery and Camelot,” says Dentsu Creative ECD, Dave Reger. “Being embedded with media from kick-off gave us a unique perspective to the opportunities and pitfalls facing the business.”

Four agencies responded to the RFP distributed in May, not including incumbent OKRP. Final decisions were made in late July after two rounds of pitches to the lottery and its operating partner, Camelot Illinois.

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