The Dutch Staatsloterij (translation: state lottery) is a foundation that offers gambling games in the Netherlands. It has been the most popular lottery there for almost three centuries. Its customers are divided in two groups; one buys single tickets, some every month, others just occasionally. The other group is a lottery member and plays with each draw.
The problem: the amount of regular players is decreasing. And that's bad, because less regular players means less structural revenue.
Our mission: to come up with a new kind of membership; one that attracts more people to play regularly. The sales volume of members had to go up. My team and I, however, were sceptical and stubborn. We knew the ultimate goal was an increase in sales volume, not more structural revenue. So, we were going to find other ways to achieve this. This mission was too narrowing and we were going to do it our way.
Problem Finding
We started doing internet research about the players' needs, separating reasons to play and conditions to play. To gather extra data, we took a poll. We compared this information with the Staatsloterij foundation. We looked at the insides and outsides (SWOT analysis); what are the weak points of the current sales and membership? What other kinds of memberships and lotteries exist? How do they do it? By making this comparion, we found certain areas where the Staatsloterij was lacking. These were the social aspect of the game, reliability of the brand, sustainability, service and variety.
Ideation
With the foundation's weak points in mind, we started brainstorming for ideas. We ended up with tens of elaborate ideas. Nevertheless, we had to make a selection. First, we picked two ideas to develop them into concepts. Then, we decided to continue with the one that had the most potential, one that was both effective and achievable.
Concepting
The concept consisted of two parts: one was an smartphone app. Staatsloterij already had an app at the time. We wanted to improve it and add some extra functions. Simpleness, however, remained guaranteed. Every adjustment was meant to improve a weak area. For example, the new ability to personalize settings and to contact Staatsloterij directly by chat would improve the service. Information about guarantees would improve brand reliability. Also, the easy way in which digital tickets could be bought would improve sales and sustainability.
The second part of the concept was a national two-month campaign. This had three aims: to increase brand-awareness, to increase the amount of players and to increase the amount of app downloads. The idea was as follows: in every city so-called 'goldfishes' would be set up. These are small iBeacons in the shape of a fish. iBeacons are little electronic devices that can send out signals up to 70 meters. When people have downloaded the app, they get an alert when they are close to an iBeacon. If you get closer, you get another alert. If you have found the iBeacon, you can scan the QR code that is on it and see if you won a price. Sharing this with your friends would give a social and potentionally viral aspect to the campagin. Although the prices will cost money for the Staatsloterij, they will get revenue on the long term by more brand-awareness and an expected increase in players. Optionally, the Staatsloterij could also ask a small amount of money from people who want to download the app.
Not only did this concept give a solution to all areas where Staatsloterij was lacking behind on consumer needs, it is also an innovative strategy that would make the organization one step ahead in technology and sustainability.
You can watch the promo video of our concept here below (I edited it, by the way!: