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MEGA MILLIONS Means Mega-Fun for Gráfica and the New Jersey Lottery;
Transforming the BIG GAME Through Multichannel Advertising in the Garden State
April 2002
 Putting "mega" in front of anything might be an exaggeration, especially if it involves millions of dollars and advertising. But in the case of the new MEGA MILLIONS game, an enhanced version of the popular multistate BIG GAME, "mega" may be the only word that accurately describes the jackpots for which Lottery players in nine states will soon be vying.
According to Carole Hedinger, Acting Executive Director of the New Jersey Lottery, the decision to enhance the BIG GAME and create MEGA MILLIONS was made collectively by the BIG GAME member states following the additions of New York and Ohio to the game.
"In New Jersey, the BIG GAME produced tremendous jackpots and gave our players an opportunity to win amounts of money that never seemed possible," added Hedinger. "With the addition of two states to the existing game, the total population base of the game increased from 58 million to 80 million. Given this expanded player pool, it was necessary to relaunch and rebrand the BIG GAME with an expanded number matrix to allow the jackpot level to roll to the levels expected by our players."
The anticipated jackpots of MEGA MILLIONS are much bigger than BIG GAME. For example, BIG GAME jackpots used to begin at $5 million; MEGA MILLIONS jackpots start at $10 million. The highest BIG GAME jackpot was $363 million; MEGA MILLIONS could reach $500 million. Even second-place payouts are substantially higher — $175,000 for MEGA MILLIONS compared with $150,000 for BIG GAME.
Still, while the prizes are grander than ever, properly promoting a new game of such huge proportions to a customer base already pleased with BIG GAME promises to be a mega-task! GráficaGroup was called upon by its client, the New Jersey Lottery, to create and execute a multimedia advertising campaign to build excitement about MEGA MILLIONS as the replacement for BIG GAME in the Garden State.
Mega-Mission
GráficaGroup (www.grafica.com), based in Chester, N.J., is a multichannel advertising agency that creates, executes, and measures traditional and interactive marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies across several industries. Gráfica has served some of the biggest brands in New Jersey: AT&T and Lucent Technologies in telecommunications; Bayer, Novartis, and Pfizer in pharmaceuticals; PSE&G in utilities; Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey in healthcare; Coldwell Banker Commercial in real estate; and Morgan Stanley and Household Insurance in financial services. Additionally, the agency has served numerous state organizations, including the New Jersey Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, Prosperity New Jersey, Rutgers University, and Teach for America, New Jersey.
The New Jersey Lottery named Gráfica its agency of record in 1999. Today, on behalf of the Lottery, Gráfica helps shape strategy and creates and executes TV, radio, print, outdoor, in-store, point-of-sale, and transit advertising, and provides support on email campaigns. Furthermore, GráficaInter.active recently redesigned the Lottery Web Site www.state.nj.us/lottery and manages public relations through its subcontractor, The MWW Group.
Gráfica's efforts have helped yield significant results:
- Overall Lottery sales increased from $1.6 billion in 1999 to over $2 billion in 2002.
- Sales of the relaunched Pick-6 Lotto increased 36 percent over the next 12 months.
- Pick-3 and Pick-4 sales up 4.21 percent and 6.65 percent respectively fiscal year to date with the new midday draw launch compared with previous fiscal year to date.
- Instant ticket sales up 14.29 percent for July through March of fiscal year 2002.
- Sales for revised Lotzee up 30.41 percent in March 2002 following game change.
- Big Money Spectacular becomes first product advertised on "King Kong-sized" bus ads in New Jersey.
- Helped design the popular online VIP Club, which now has 55,000 members.
These successes, coupled with a well-established daily working relationship between the New Jersey Lottery and Gráfica, will help make the transition from BIG GAME to MEGA MILLIONS a smooth one. It's an ad-agency cliché to say that an agency truly "knows" its client's business. But in this case, the cliché is correct — Gráfica knows the Lottery business, and it's that knowledge that has helped it anticipate trends, manage change, and consistently deliver creative with bottom-line impact.
For this new campaign, Gráfica worked closely not only with the New Jersey Lottery, but also with all the state Lotteries included in the new multistate game: Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, and now New York and Ohio.
"The unique thing about the Lottery industry is the absence of competition among state Lotteries," said Jason Bacharach, Vice President of Marketing, GráficaGroup. "Compared with the private sector, where companies are loathe to reveal even the smallest tactical detail, working on the New Jersey Lottery has been refreshing because ideas are shared, not secreted away. That openness with respect to strategy allows creativity to flourish."
Mega-Strategy
The New Jersey Lottery faced two major strategic challenges in launching MEGA MILLIONS. First: How do you differentiate a new game from its predecessor without creating confusion and dissatisfaction among loyal players? Second: How do you preserve and expand the casual player base of the BIG GAME while changing its name? The New Jersey Lottery worked in tandem with Gráfica to outline a marketing strategy that would lead to a creative campaign that stresses and amplifies the excitement players felt for the BIG GAME.
"We did not want to lose touch with the feelings people experience when playing BIG GAME, but we did want players to realize that there is a new, 'bigger' BIG GAME in town," said Bacharach. "Now with MEGA MILLIONS, everything is bigger: the jackpot, the rate at which the jackpot rolls over, the excitement people feel when they play, and their dreams of winning. MEGA MILLIONS takes everything to another level, and the advertising campaign reflects that."
Additionally, Gráfica saw MEGA MILLIONS as an opportunity to attract more than just loyal players. The casual player, who had been enticed by BIG GAME jackpots, is sure to be even more attracted to the magnitude of MEGA MILLIONS jackpots.
"We've seen marked increases in ticket sales among casual players once jackpots reach $40- to $50-million levels," said Steven Paige, Marketing Supervisor, GráficaGroup. "We have every reason to expect that positive trend to occur more frequently, since MEGA MILLIONS jackpots will reach the $40- to $50-million range faster and more often. It will also reach levels far beyond BIG GAME, which will likely draw even more casual players, maybe even people who have never played. MEGA MILLIONS should become a phenomenon unto itself."
But Paige cautions that new Lottery games, regardless of jackpot size, do not become immediately accepted. "It takes some time for a game to become established, which we learned from the BIG GAME," said Paige. "For example, it took a couple of years for BIG GAME to lock into the Lottery lexicon, experiencing a 22 percent awareness jump during year one, then a 12.6 percent jump in year two. BIG GAME grew steadily in popularity; it was not an overnight sensation."
Mega-Creative
To help speed the acceptance of MEGA MILLIONS among New Jersey Lottery players, Gráfica has helped the New Jersey Lottery coordinate a six-week rollout campaign with the objective of stimulating awareness and quelling confusion about MEGA MILLIONS throughout the state. On the creative front, Gráfica had to come up with a way to capture and depict the impending excitement about MEGA MILLIONS without completely abandoning the brand power of BIG GAME.
"We experimented with some high-minded creative, only to realize that keeping it simple was the best strategy," said Corey Korpita, Associate Creative Director, GráficaGroup. "We're talking about the chance to win half-a-billion dollars. If that doesn't catch your attention, nothing will. The idea is: 'Yesterday, BIG GAME was great, but today, MEGA MILLIONS is just that...mega!' So, in a sense, our job was to come up with creative that carried on the BIG GAME tradition while promoting the newer, bigger, and better MEGA MILLIONS game."
One simple, but effective tactic was placing the gold BIG GAME ball in the MEGA MILLIONS logo. It's strategically situated to work with, not against, the patriotic, bright red, white, and blue colors of the new MEGA MILLIONS logo. This treatment helps reinforce that MEGA MILLIONS is not a line extension; rather, it has replaced BIG GAME.
A second tactic was to utilize the word "mega" wherever and whenever possible to ingratiate the concept into New Jersey culture. Take, for example, the tagline for the new game. In this case: "Hit it Mega-Big!" The message invokes BIG GAME, but clearly proclaims that BIG GAME has been taken to the next level. Korpita points out that the word "hit" is particularly effective. "Winning any jackpot is thrilling, but imagine how it will feel to win a MEGA MILLIONS jackpot. We incorporated the verb 'hit' into the tagline, because sometimes winners hit the jackpot, but in the case of MEGA MILLIONS, it will feel like the jackpot hits them!"
The magnitude of MEGA MILLIONS jackpots also influenced the creative direction of the campaign. "Gráfica produced Lottery spots in the past that encouraged players to dream, but in this case, it's hard to dream up what someone would do with $500-million dollars," said Korpita. "So rather than depict what's beyond the typical player's imagination, we decided to portray the excitement that's bound to take place at the point of purchase, namely at Lottery retailers."
The MEGA MILLIONS television commercial is a humorous parody of a TV newscast covering MEGA MILLIONS madness. In the spot, a square-jawed reporter begins detailing how people are lining up in droves to purchase MEGA MILLIONS tickets. The calm, cool, collected correspondent is juxtaposed against a backdrop of MEGA MILLIONS players giddy with the prospect of becoming mega-millionaires.
On a more serious note, the newscast format catches a player's attention, as would a news flash. After all, MEGA MILLIONS is something new, and it's important to communicate the name and format of the game, as well as the potential jackpot size, to all Lottery players.
Further reinforcing the importance of point of sale, Gráfica has designed a variety of colorful, attention-arresting in-store displays, including buttons, danglers, counter cards, posters, and score sheets.
Mega-Media
Once the strategy and creative was set, Gráfica's media department began planning a statewide blitz to get the new MEGA MILLIONS brand in front of as many New Jerseyans as possible. The May launch will consist of the above-mentioned TV spots and newspaper ads, plus freestanding inserts in every New Jersey daily newspaper, promoted concurrently on radio in New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia. There will also be a continuous radio presence in New Jersey on air and in person, with scheduled live broadcasts on a regular basis at various Lottery retailers. More than 500 buses will carry MEGA MILLIONS ads statewide. Plane tows will fly from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Digital jackpot ads will run on PATH Vision, more than 180 monitors that broadcast content to passengers as they wait for PATH trains into New York.
"New Jersey is unique in the nation, because we do not have our own TV market," said Paige. "We buy New York and Philadelphia programming. However, there are ways you can capitalize on New Jersey-based media properties."
Gráfica will place a strong percentage of newspaper ads in several New Jersey dailies. They will also rely on in-state cable stations, which often prove to be efficient and cost-effective. New Jersey radio — talk, music, and sports formats — also does a great job of keeping the Lottery top-of-mind in a state teaming with commuters. If those commuters don't have the radio on to hear about MEGA MILLIONS, they're bound to see billboard ads in high-traffic areas like the Jersey City side of the Holland Tunnel, the Atlantic City Expressway, Hillside, Lodi, South Brunswick, and the Walt Whitman Bridge in Camden. Finally, GráficaInter.active will do its part in promoting MEGA MILLIONS on the Web with revised homepage content, pop-up windows, banner ads, and an email campaign targeted to Lottery VIP Club members.
Gráfica's integrated efforts during this launch should set the stage for and ease the transition to MEGA MILLIONS, and, in the process, help the New Jersey Lottery reach its MEGA MILLIONS sales estimates of $192 million in fiscal year 2002 and $211 million in fiscal year 2003. These sales increases ultimately translate into more funding for important state programs, such as Community Colleges, Department of Human Services, Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, and school nutrition. The Lottery contributes 38 percent of every dollar earned to support state education and institutions.
MEGA MILLIONS will debut on May 15, 2002.
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