More and more US state lotteries are making use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube to show just why playing the lottery is fun and as an effective way to connect with players.
In fact, there are a number of lotteries that are killing it on social media and we thought we’d take a look.
The Missouri Lottery
Last year, the Missouri Lottery launched a unique Facebook Live campaign, titled Cats vs. Dogs. The aim was to drive fan interaction and encourage more players.
Through the game, fans encouraged cats and dogs, cheering them on through likes and comments. Simple enough. The campaign was a great success.
In total, it drove more than 2,300,000 impressions, received over 7,000 likes and more than 2,200 comments. What’s more, 500 people shared posts which helped the lottery reach a wider audience and gain over 400 new page likes.
The Missouri lottery seems to successfully take a cross-channel approach to promote its video content across social media channels.
The same can be said for the Minnesota Lottery. The lottery developed a digital campaign featuring videos of novice players scratching their tickets. The short video aimed to introduce people to the lottery and it received more than one million impressions both on Instagram and Facebook. It was also played across YouTube and Twitter.
Other States Are Getting It Right, Too
Other states ramped up their social media profiles some time ago and are getting it right.
Take the Pennsylvania Lottery as an example. The lottery launched campaigns during summer time jackpot fever and during the holidays last year. They’re good at keeping their page up to date, too, with tips, winners, and fun mini games.
Last November, the New Mexico Lottery used social media to promote both the Lotto America and Mega Millions jackpots. But, it was the lottery’s Powerball jackpot awareness campaign last August that really brought in the numbers. At the time, the Powerball jackpot was over $530 million, and the boosted Facebook post reached almost 600,000 social media users. It also experienced the most engagement in 2017 for the lottery with 6,300 reactions, shares, and comments.
Delaware Lottery set out to kick off sales for the new Lotto America game by creating an exciting treasure hunt. The social media campaign saw players locating a star bill hidden under the state. The campaign generated much excitement and grew the lottery’s following. Today they have a vibrant Instagram account that they are hard at work promoting.
Meanwhile, Iowa lottery officials have been promoting their posts for years. Their first YouTube video hit the internet back in 2007 and they created their Facebook and Twitter accounts a year later. It looks like they continue to keep their platforms up to date with creative, bright images, stories and fun competitions.
The California Lottery has reported immense growth on its Facebook page, too, with more than half a million Likes on the page, great reviews, and plenty of handy articles.
New York Lottery Winning Campaign Awards
The New York Lottery has to be our winner. It’s received no less than four Lottery industry awards for its campaigns over the past couple of years.
The campaign dubbed #Unclaimed earned the New York Lottery the Hickey Award for its highly creative search for the missing millionaire. Back in 2015, a rather lucky yet unknown player purchased a Cash4Life ticket worth over seven million dollars from a Brooklyn deli. Yet, he or she never came forward to claim the prize.
The marketing campaign used social media to draw attention to the missing ticket.
The Lottery is Smashing Social Media
We live in an online social world. So, why shouldn’t state lotteries be hard at work on their social media platforms? After all, that’s where the players are hanging out, engaging and supporting brands.
Whether it’s promoting the latest jackpot or encouraging player engagement, the lotteries are smashing it.
On Facebook and Twitter, millions of people share their dreams of what they would do with their winnings. Hashtags like #powerball do the rounds every week. And, we bet you know exactly what kind of Instagram photo you’d take if you were a winner #just saying.