VIRGINIA LOTTERY

CASE STUDIES

2912 West Leigh St. | Richmond, VA 23230 | 804.783.8140

For our Neathawk360 media planners, there’s nothing better than building a plan around foundational

audience insights that will lead to behavioral change. Armed with audience intel and our day in the life

profiles, our planners, buyers and analysts collaborate with creative teams – whether in-house or with

external partners - to determine the most effective use of your media budget.

Our work for the Virginia Lottery is a great example of how a partnership with another creative agency can

yield amazing results.

From the outset of each campaign, we collaborate closely with Yebo (formerly the Barber Martin Agency),

the Lottery’s long-standing creative partner - sharing insights, bouncing ideas off each other, discuss what’s

working (and what isn’t) and exploring ways to take advantage of the most innovative and engaging media

opportunities available.

In most cases, the Lottery campaigns include a mix of traditional television, radio and outdoor plus more

layered, complex and emerging digital media opportunities from streaming audio and video to programmatic

buying, geo-fencing around retail locations, social media, contextual and high-impact digital display.

But every campaign has a slightly different objective and finding creative and unexpected media solutions

for each excites us. That work includes exploring variations by market, and how we can surround

potential players with messaging as they move throughout their day.

It is also always important to understand the complexities of each media market to maximize efficiencies.

For example, traditional media is cost-prohibitive in Northern Virginia / D.C., so knowing consumers there

are more digitally connected usually leads us to dial up OTT, Connected TV and targeted cable. Conversely,

limitations with digital connectivity in rural areas of Southwest Virginia often requires a more traditional media

approach.

What follows are just a few examples of more unique tactics that we added to our typical media mix for

each Lottery campaign to help drive outstanding results specific to that product.

UNDERSTANDING MARKET DIVERSITY

X THE MONEY CAMPAIGNCHALLENGE: The Virginia Lottery requested a media strategy to promote a family of scratchers that ranged from $1 to

$30. Under a tight timeline, the Neathawk360 team worked closely with Yebo to execute a multi-product

campaign that would demonstrate the game’s unique feature giving the winning player the chance to find a

5X, 10X, 20X or 100X prize “multiplier.”

SOLUTION: While brainstorming with Yebo, we identified media strategies that brought the “multiplier” concept to life

such as :90 video spots that could feature the family of scratchers, and other tactics that offered sequential

messaging.

MEDIA TACTICS UNIQUE TO THE CAMPAIGN:Our Neathawk360 team knew that audiences would only be open to a long-form :90 if they were already

deeply engaged with the content they were consuming, so television included high-profile programming

like the NCAA Championship, Kentucky Derby and the Grammys. Consecutive outdoor boards plus high-

impact cross-device display, retargeting and social media with sequential messaging all brought the multiplier

concept to life.

RESULTS: A 16% overall increase in scratcher sales was 8x better than the pre-established goal

for the campaign.

HOLIDAY SCRATCHERS CAMPAIGNCHALLENGE: Neathawk360 was tasked with developing a multi-channel media plan to increase year over year sales of the

Virginia Lottery’s five holiday-themed scratchers and sell out the New Year’s Eve Raffle tickets.

SOLUTION: Engage people who may not be a core player throughout the year using innovative and cost-effective media

solutions that broke through the typical holiday advertising clutter to move them from passive to active

buyers.

MEDIA TACTICS UNIQUE TO THE CAMPAIGN:Due to the short sales cycle, a heavier than average media buy was implement to have an immediate impact

on sales. Emphasis was given to streaming video and audio placements plus engagement opportunities

through contextual placements and social platforms which spoke directly to infrequent players.

RESULTS: We surpassed our goal to increase year over year sales of holiday scratcher by

3-5% by generating a 7% increase and a 13:1 ROI.

EXTREME MILLIONS MEDIA CAMPAIGN CHALLENGE: Neathawk360 was challenged with turning around stagnant sales of the Virginia Lottery’s Extreme Millions

$30 scratcher that had been in retail stores for over a year.

SOLUTION: Through close collaboration with Yebo, the Newthawk360 team identified characteristics that were unique

to this particular player, who was relatively affluent, active and independent. Launching in January, the

campaign had to break through the daily chaos of the new year as prospective players recalibrated after the

holidays when their kids headed back to school and new year’s resolutions became a focus.

MEDIA TACTICS UNIQUE TO THE CAMPAIGN:Emphasis was given to TV spots within high-profile award shows and playoff games, advertising in health

clubs, streaming options across multiple platforms and high-impact digital units with geo-fencing around

retail locations.

RESULTS: The campaign generated over 113,000 unique landing page views, and the video

completion was 6% over benchmark for audience engagement. Average sales

increased by $3.3 million each week the campaign was live with sales totaling over

$150 million.

LOCALIZED EDUCATION FUNDING AWARENESS CAMPAIGNCHALLENGE: The Virginia Lottery donates over $600 million annually to public schools throughout Virginia. Neathawk360

was tasked with raising awareness regarding how much the specific contrition was in each locality to change

Virginians’ mindset that the Lottery was just about games of chance – it also provides critical funds to public

school programs.

SOLUTION: Research indicated our audiences were are on social media an average of three to four hours a day, and 74

percent favored Facebook. Flexible messaging for microtargeting by locality made Facebook the clear choice

for a campaign with a very limited budget.

MEDIA TACTICS UNIQUE TO THE CAMPAIGN:Our Neathawk360 social media team created 134 geographic groups in Facebook tied to zip codes within Virginia,

so we could send messaging with specific education funding contribution totals to each community. We also

tested both adults 18+ as a general audience and influencers like community leaders, legislators and parents.

RESULTS: The campaign generated over 5 million impressions while achieving an overall link

clickthrough rate that was 60 percent above benchmark. Most importantly, the Virginia

Lottery’s annual awareness study showed a 2 percent increase in awareness for their

contributions to education. Learnings from the campaign found that the personalized

messaging had an engagement rate that was 6 times higher than more generic versions.