Marketing the Jackpot Games – Arizona to Montana

By NASPL Insights Online

Published February 17, 2026

From local lotto games to billion-dollar national games, lotteries face awareness and engagement challenges with products that are unpredictable and with consumers whose expectations change over time.

We asked lotteries about their jackpot marketing strategies across all their games, from local lotto games to the big national games. Their edited responses follow, split into two posts for more easier reading. As always, we thank all the lotteries that were able to participate.

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Arizona Lottery

The Arizona Lottery’s jackpot activation strategy is a multi-tiered approach designed to maximize awareness and sales at every level, from the base up to billion-dollar territory. At low levels, the focus is on maintaining consistent awareness through cost-effective channels. This includes leveraging organic social media and leaderboards for all games, offering various coupons, and promoting the Players Club. Public Relations is active with Win Alerts and winner awareness for notable prizes, subtly including the jackpot as a secondary message. Retail visibility is maintained with evergreen, scrolling banners on market-wide LIM Monitors. A key operational strategy is the immediate pivot to celebrating an Arizona winner; should a jackpot hit in-state, PR and social media efforts shift entirely to focus on the winner’s story and retailer location.

Paid advertising, specifically out-of-home (OOH) and Gas Station TV (GSTV), kicks in at a higher tier. For the major multi-state games, OOH activation begins at $550 million, allowing for strategic adjustments based on sales, budget, and whether both jackpots are rolling. The strategy includes a maximum activation point, as OOH advertising is deactivated once the jackpot hits $1 billion, allowing the strategy to rely on the overwhelming free media attention that such a milestone generates. New campaigns are implemented in clear tiers across all channels: the website switches from a rotating alert to the main hero image at $250 million+, while the Players Club begins formal promotion at the same threshold and escalates to push notifications and e-blasts at $350 million+. Similarly, PR activities escalate from merely monitoring earned attention at $250 million to full-scale pitching and securing interviews at $600 million and above.

Specific strategies are in place to manage both high and low jackpot environments. To build momentum faster in a high jackpot scenario, the agency activates its most intensive PR and OOH efforts at the highest tiers, ensuring maximum visibility just before the draw. Conversely, the strategy includes measures to encourage play at low or newly reset jackpots. These tactics include activating Players Club promotions early – specifically between $150 million and $249 million if both national jackpots are simultaneously rolling – and continuously pitching Winner Alerts for smaller prizes (up to $250K) to create localized excitement and demonstrate the chance to win.

Finally, our in-state  games – The Pick and Triple Twist – are fully integrated into the overall marketing plan but operate on tailored, lower thresholds. For example, Triple Twist begins its LIM/website alerts at just $1 million and OOH activation at $3 million, reflecting its lower jackpot curve. Fast Play Progressive instant games are also managed with defined, integrated thresholds, ensuring they appear on LIM monitors at the point of sale once their jackpots reach levels like $15,000+ or $700,000+. This comprehensive approach ensures that both national and in-state games are promoted strategically according to their respective sales and jackpot cycles.

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British Columbia Lottery Corporation

For Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max, jackpot ads run only during draw periods (the morning after a drawing until just before the next drawing). Media advertising is always on for both brands regardless of the jackpot level, but we may shift Gross Rating Points and media spend between brands depending on different jackpot levels. This flexibility allows us to ensure that when we are reaching a higher jackpot, we can increase reach.

On social media, we post content regularly for general game awareness. Topics include game education (e.g., how the games work), B.C. winning ticket announcements, stories highlighting big B.C. wins, and winner celebrations for B.C. jackpot wins. For high jackpots, we generally post content such as countdowns to max jackpot and high jackpot alerts. These could be reels using current trends or static posts using branded assets or inspirational stock footage

Delaware Lottery

We have a number of everyday strategies for jackpot awareness:

• Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot billboards

• Jackpot digital alerts (for jackpots exceeding $450 million)

• Jackpot transit signage

• Press release when any prize of $100,000 or more is claimed (not just jackpots)

• Big winner stories and social post when any prize of $25,000 or more is won

• Draw reminders and player engagement posts on social media

• Social media posts announcing the number of local winners and the total amount of prizes for each draw (Mega Millions)

Paid advertising begins with jackpots of $450 million. We don’t discontinue our efforts in promoting jackpots, regardless of how high it gets.

Other strategies for players include eblasts to Players Club loyalty members, player engagement posts via social media, and weekly players club achievements (loyalty members are awarded additional points when they meet specific criteria. For example, during the month of February, players will earn points when they enter $10 worth of Lotto America tickets.) We also participate in nationwide promotions, such as the NASCAR Powerball Promotion, as often as possible.

We generally promote our in-state games in the same ways as the multi-state jackpot games. We also include them in sampler promotions used at various public events, promote them through lottery parties held at retail locations, and run game-specific campaigns.

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Florida Lottery

We utilize our Marketing Mix Modeling studies in both our everyday strategy and as part of the equation in our strategy during high jackpots. We use the MMM study each year to look at player habits and media spends, to develop and optimize our jackpot strategy that encourages jackpot play at all levels. We have always-on owned and paid media channels (e.g., DOOH boards) that help keep jackpot games top-of-mind and drive ongoing sales.

We use a combination of paid and owned channels for high jackpot messaging efforts. We implement a phased approach where our media support grows (more channels/formats added) as the jackpot continues to increase to ensure that we are reaching all Floridians with this message. This media support grows until we reach a point of diminishing returns (after the jackpot exceeds $1 billion) and we scale back on our media efforts to remain efficient, deliver a strong ROI, and leverage the power of word-of-mouth advertising.

• For jackpots $20 million to $99 million: DOOH boards.

• For $100 million to $249 million: DOOH boards, GSTV L-Bars, TV billboards, DJ chatter and anchor mentions. On our owned channels, we use our website and ESMM slides.

• For $250 million to $999 million: DOOH boards, GSTV L-Bars, TV billboards, DJ chatter and anchor mentions, total traffic and weather, digital display, paid social display. On our owned channels, in addition to our website and ESMM slides, we add organic social starting at $500 million.

• For jackpots reaching $1 billion, we use DOOH boards, GSTV L-Bars, TV billboards and DJ chatter. We continue the owned channel program of the previous level.

All our draw games are supported through organic social, our website, and ESMM slides throughout the year, as well as full advertising campaigns as needed for specific games. For example, we have done several advertising campaigns (TV, digital, OOH, social, POS, radio) for Pick over the last two years to continue to boost sales

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Hoosier Lottery

We have an “always on” strategy to promote our jackpot games using organic social, website and app messaging, email and text messaging to our player program (myLOTTERY) members, retail signage and merchandising, winner awareness, and event/sponsorship efforts. We begin executing trigger strategies for all our jackpot games – local and national – that increases organic and paid support as the jackpot momentum builds. We use these trigger strategies as a guide, while continuing to remain nimble based on what else in happening in-market. No two trigger periods are the same, and we look at each one uniquely to maximize our communication approach.

Each jackpot game has its own unique strategy, including jackpot thresholds where paid media kicks in. For example, Powerball and Mega Millions triggers both start at $400 million with live radio alerts and digital out-of-home. At $600 million, we add in paid display and social media ads. We traditionally turn off all channels at the $700 million mark, when earned typically media starts to kick in, but this is evaluated within every trigger run against earned media metrics to help determine a stopping point.

We have a specific strategy for not only each trigger threshold, but also each channel. For our push notification and email strategy to myLOTTERY members, for example, we have tiered communication plans where touchpoints and messaging are completely customized and vary as the jackpot climbs higher. For organic social at threshold levels, we use specific language to help drive awareness and drive players to sign up for our members only myLOTTERY program to receive jackpot notifications and winning numbers, and create their digital playslips.

Our social plan focuses on highlighting not only the jackpot amount, but winners across all prize amounts, retailers that sold winning tickets, and other motivating stats to drive awareness and engagement. We also promote cross-play and add-on games, to draw attention to other game opportunities. In addition to product messaging, at higher jackpot levels we also add in responsible gaming and give back communications to extend our brand messaging. 

Our Hoosier Lotto trigger starts at $10 million with live radio alerts and digital out-of-home. To prevent jackpot messaging fatigue, our strategy is to be in and out of trigger mode as the jackpot grows in $5 million increments. For our other in-state jackpot games, like CA$H 5 and Fast Play progressive games, we follow similar protocol,  but start at lower thresholds and prioritize social media, retail messaging, and digital channels to help promote the jackpot levels.

Idaho Lottery

The Idaho Lottery uses a variety of strategies to support jackpot games at every prize level. These include reminding players that any jackpot win is significant, highlighting winners from across Idaho, building community brand recognition through our mascot, encouraging trial of new and existing games through promotions, and promoting new games through advertising.

$50 million and $20 million is still a lot of money! We believe our jackpot games offer a large prize no matter what the level. It seems crazy that people say “oh, $50 million just isn’t enough money.” With the recent change with Mega Millions, we produced a spot that reinforces this thought at the get go. It asks viewers, “What would you do with $50 million?” We run this on our owned channels including vending machines, in-store monitors and on social. We also traffic this in on streaming/TV when appropriate.

The Idaho Lottery has started to create momentum early with Powerball and Mega Millions by starting jackpot alerts at $300 million. This includes digital, social and in-store monitors. At about $500 million we deploy TV/streaming into the mix. We continue to promote through $700 million then ease off until we reach $1 billion. We have found the sooner we start talking about it the more people start watching the jackpot and might jump in sooner than waiting for an extremely high amount. Because we were originally a Powerball state, we are usually able to build engagement quicker with the Powerball jackpot.  Plus, for now, the Powerball jackpot jumps further with each roll which creates more excitement. Of course, this strategy shifts based on previous runs, other things happening in our state, etc.

An important part of our strategy is winner awareness. Anytime we have a draw game winner from Idaho we make sure to publicize it on our in-store monitors, vending machines, social, website and in our retail newsletter. Our winners are some of the most popular content on social media. Sharing the fun stories is what our players can connect with.

The Idaho Lottery is lucky to have BALL. We created a federal trademark for the character in 2002. He is our Powerball mascot who represents not only all our draw games but is recognized as a symbol of the Idaho Lottery and the dream of winning big. BALL is used throughout the year to create memorable experiences in the community. He appears in social media, as a giant 15' BALL in parades and in front of retailers, and is featured in vinyl window clings and on billboards across Idaho. BALL continues to provide a fun way to elevate our draw games and to create engagement no matter what the jackpot level.

New draw games are supported with an omnichannel marketing approach. It’s important to motivate trial, educate the clerks and players, and create excitement to build a player base for that game.

We have found that promotions are the most successful way to build trial of our secondary draw games. For instance, we ran a promotion for Lucky for Life for the past three years that has doubled our sales for that game and helped grow our player base and engagement. We have seen similar success with running promotions for other games including Idaho Cash and Lotto America.

Illinois Lottery

The Illinois Lottery supports jackpot games regardless of jackpot amount, but we do prioritize spend and share of voice based on overall sales, popularity of games, and jackpot amounts.

In paid media, we support in-state and multistate games with dynamic creative that pulls in live jackpot amounts, which helps drive purchase and excitement by providing real-time information. This is supported in display, social and online video.

We also support jackpots across owned media channels. In organic social, we regularly highlight jackpots for games being drawn that day to build awareness and maintain relevance with our followers. Through email and in-app push, we deliver targeted jackpot alerts to players most likely to engage, leveraging player history and predictive analytics tied to the current jackpot amount. We also encourage cross-play when the multistate jackpots are growing, strategically introducing jackpot-motivated players to try Fast Play online.

While paid media supporting multistate games is always on, timing is a key consideration in owned media execution – jackpot alerts are typically prioritized in the morning, when players are catching up on email and social media, or in the afternoon as their work day is ending. When jackpots reach exceptionally high levels and increases are likely, the team intentionally delays deployment until 11am CT to ensure real-time accuracy and avoid communicating outdated jackpot amounts.

As jackpots reach the $750 million level, we see an organic increase in interest and clicks, so our media spend increases accordingly to keep up with demand from consumers. We also “heavy up” creative in spaces dedicated to support for other games. For instance, in social, we have specific Fast Play target audiences, but during high rolls we will also include creative for our draw games to help reach players we may not reach otherwise. We also increase support in broadcast TV.

To help build momentum, we increase support in linear tv and increase spend in paid social. Over the years we tested different paid media strategies such as different audiences, different messages and different KPIs, but what we found was that aligning our efforts with PR and organic media (such as news), increased sales and awareness the most.

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While a large portion of our media plan is digital in order to maintain flexibility, we still use traditional tactics like TV (broadcast and streaming), radio (terrestrial and streaming) and out of home media.  However, we don’t ramp up traditional spend with rising jackpots since earned media typically takes over at that point. On digital platforms, media spend is driven by organic demand. The platforms we advertise on (e.g. Meta) optimize our spend based on what consumers are seeking. For example, when a Powerball jackpot is high, more people are interested in playing Powerball, so the platform will optimize spend for that game will increase prevalence of Powerball ads relative to other games (e.g. Fast Play). Our spend is being reallocated across games due to consumer demand.

While we increase our audience size and frequency of communications in owned social and CRM, we actually pull back on digital promotions during high jackpot rolls. We’ve found that players organically come back and do not need extra incentives to play during these periods. When jackpots reset, we try to re-engage lapsed players with a four-week digital promotional series that includes free tickets and BOGO offers. We first tested this approach in October 2025 following the $1.8 billion Powerball roll, and it drove strong engagement rates (nearly 20%) and positive ROI. We are currently live with the series again targeting players who have lapsed since the December 2025 Powerball roll.

Our in-state games receive support in paid media in our display and social channels, but spend for these games is less and they typically drive lower performance compared to the multi-state games. We see more success supporting these in our owned channels as these games are most popular with our core players. When we celebrate winners or share winning numbers for our in-state games, we see extremely high engagement in CRM and owned social (9% on Facebook, three-percentage points above our platform average).

Kentucky Lottery

At the Kentucky Lottery, we apply a tiered approach with media efforts and engagement growing in conjunction with the amount of the jackpot. Prior to a high jackpot period and as part of our overall media strategy, we strategically utilize ongoing paid digital media campaigns to enhance reach and engagement with potential players. This ensures that our jackpot games remain featured across various online platforms, driving sustained interest and participation.

As jackpots increase, we raise media spending to meet awareness goals. Our team uses defined jackpot thresholds to trigger enhanced media tactics, designed to capitalize on heightened player interest during high jackpot periods and ensure maximum visibility and engagement.

Our approach uses these defined media thresholds to scale efforts:

• Starting with in-retail messaging at $250 million

• Organic channels such as email and social media at $350 million

• High-visibility tactics such as linear and connected TV at $450 million

• Intensifying community outreach and engagement as jackpots climb toward $1 billion

In addition to media, we also focus on engaging with our players personally in the retail setting by holding promotional events on draw days, giving away coupons as well as Kentucky Lottery branded items to show appreciation for our loyal players.

Collaboration across many teams at the Kentucky Lottery is essential during high jackpot periods to ensure that messaging, timing, retail activation, and media are all implemented successfully and in coordination with one another.

One example is through winner awareness messaging. As a general practice we send news releases to media regardless of jackpot amounts announcing second-tier and third-tier wins and where winning tickets are sold. It is important to garner earned media and digital engagement with national draw game winner stories when jackpots are high and when a jackpot resets. We do this by highlighting second-tier prizes during a high jackpot period and summarizing the number of winners once a jackpot is hit and resets.

The Dec. 24, 2025, $1.817 billion historic Powerball jackpot with the most drawings in a jackpot cycle gave us the opportunity to announce that Kentucky had 21 large winning tickets at retailers and online across the state, totaling $4.5 million. Large prize amounts ranged from $50,000 to $2 million. Additionally, we were able to engage with players through winner awareness that with the jackpot reset at $20 million, the 10X Power Play multiplier is available since the advertised jackpot is below $150 million. 

Following high jackpot marketing campaigns, internal reporting is conducted to measure sales lift and engagement impact, informing possible improvements for future strategies. These insights help us continuously optimize tactics to drive stronger results for the next high jackpot opportunity.

To continue momentum of a high jackpot, we have created a fun “Best of Both” promotion when the Mega Millions jackpot is hit and resets to $50 million. Players who purchase $10 of more in Mega Millions receive a free $2 Powerball quick pick ticket. The promotion is active when Mega Millions resets until the jackpot hits $300 million. We just ended the first run of this promotion, but early indications show this promotion to be successful in encouraging continued interest and play of Mega Millions.

Our in-state lottery games also play a central role in our overall marketing and media strategy. They are integrated into our annual media calendar and prioritized based on seasonal opportunities, new game launches and jackpot thresholds, and consumer behavior trends. By leveraging targeted tactics – such as digital, social, and broadcast – we create cohesive campaigns that complement our brand objectives while encouraging participation in these games.

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Loto-Québec

Our playbook is designed to be agile and responsive. Media plans, creative assets, and social content are structured to pivot quickly as jackpots move. Internal coordination and ready-to-activate tiered plans ensure we can amplify visibility at the right moments while maintaining consistent brand strength year-round.

Our approach is built around a yearly media base buy that ensures constant visibility for our jackpot products. The plan includes TV, radio, billboards/OOH, web and display, programmatic media, social media and newsletters. Each product runs its own dedicated campaign, with pre-produced assets that are deployed according to the annual media schedule and key draw dates. This allows us to maintain consistency year-round while ensuring that each game receives tailored support.

Our annual media plan includes activation plans for each threshold tier. Low jackpots are supported through the annual base buy, which maintains brand presence and encourages regular play. High jackpots, on the other hand, activate more intensive tactics to build momentum quickly, including heavier media investment, sponsored posts and boosted social content, and increased in-store visibility through our sales force. These high-impact actions allow us to reach occasional players and maximize the excitement surrounding larger jackpots. For Lotto Max, additional paid media investment begins at $60 million; for Lotto 6/49, at $30 million.

As jackpots climb and generate strong earned media, we may adjust the paid strategy to let free media take a larger role.

Our Québec-only games, Québec 49 and Québec Max, are being rebranded to align them with the 6/49 and Lotto Max campaigns. The visual “wrapping” will be refreshed; however, the communication plans for Quebec 49 and Quebec MAX will remain the same: web, newsletters, and social media.

Louisiana Lottery

At the Louisiana Lottery, our jackpot marketing strategy combines consistent year-round visibility with the agility to scale quickly as jackpots rise and fall. Social media serves as our most responsive channel, while out-of-home, retail, and traditional media provide steady, statewide presence. Together, this layered approach allows us to maintain everyday engagement and capitalize on high-jackpot momentum.

Social media. Social is our most responsive channel and serves as our real-time communication tool for jackpot updates, winner stories, and timely promotions. Because of that speed and flexibility, it plays a critical role in both sustaining interest between big runs and maximizing momentum during high jackpots. Our social media strategy for jackpot games is built around consistency and agility. Jackpots can swing dramatically from week to week, so our goal is to maintain steady visibility at everyday prize levels while scaling quickly when jackpots surge.

Our social presence exists to increase product awareness and engagement, provide timely and trustworthy information, drive qualified traffic to Lottery platforms, and reinforce a modern, positive brand perception. Rather than using a fixed calendar, we follow a flexible quota system. Jackpots, winners, and promotions change daily, so our team adjusts posting cadence based on what’s happening in real time.

Each week, our core feed typically includes one to four jackpot alerts (reactive based on prize growth), weekly winner features, and key promotional or product support. Lower-priority updates, such as regional retailer events, quick reminders, or small recaps, are shared through Stories to keep the main feed focused on high-impact content.

Jackpot alerts are posted when jackpots rise or cross notable thresholds and are always cross-posted to Stories to extend reach. Copy is concise and value-forward so players immediately understand the opportunity. We rely on branded, templated graphics that allow us to update jackpot amounts quickly without recreating assets from scratch. These templates are designed to be flexible so they can be easily re-themed throughout the year. For example, holiday runs feature festive still graphics and short-form Reels, and our current creative incorporates Mardi Gras elements like floats, beads, and masks. All designs are adaptable for both main feed and Stories placements.

When jackpots climb rapidly, we increase posting frequency and prioritize speed and visibility. Alerts may run multiple times per week, and we consistently boost high-performing posts and Stories to broaden distribution. The focus during these periods is simple, bold messaging and highly shareable content that can travel quickly across platforms. Social becomes a real-time amplifier for the excitement already happening in the market.

When jackpots reset, our strategy shifts from urgency to encouragement. Weekly winner features play an important role here. Highlighting real Louisiana winners helps reinforce that meaningful prizes are won every day, not just during record-breaking runs. This consistent storytelling keeps engagement steady and maintains trust even when headline numbers are smaller. This approach helps smooth out the peaks and valleys that naturally come with jackpot cycles.

Advertising and retail support. Beyond social, we maintain a consistent paid presence for jackpot games year-round to ensure statewide visibility. Out-of-home messaging includes static billboards across our six defined sales regions, while retailers feature dedicated jackpot space through LED jackpot signs and our in-store PAD monitor system, which highlights current amounts and featured games at the point of purchase.

Because jackpot drawings occur frequently, we typically avoid day-to-day jackpot messaging on television, radio, and print, where speed to market is more limited. Instead, those channels focus on broader brand awareness, with social and digital platforms handling real-time updates.

During especially high jackpot runs, we may activate our digital billboard network for timely jackpot messaging. We also utilize pre-produced, easily updated television spots featuring our Powerball and Mega Millions mascots competing for jackpot supremacy. These evergreen creative assets allow us to quickly plug in current amounts or milestone thresholds and enter rotation without lengthy production timelines.

In-state jackpot games. Our in-state games are supported through the same framework as national jackpots across both social and paid channels. In addition to consistent visibility through retail, OOH, and social, these games may receive added focus during higher jackpots, lower sales periods, or special events and retailer activations, sometimes paired with quick-turn promotions or branded merchandise.

This unified system allows us to pivot focus fluidly between products depending on performance, seasonality, or opportunity.

Continuous optimization. All of these strategies are guided by a living playbook that we review several times a year to stay aligned with evolving platform best practices. We regularly monitor engagement rate, reach and distribution, click-through traffic to our website, Story views, video retention patterns, and content type performance. These insights inform ongoing adjustments to creative, timing, and boosting decisions. By combining dependable year-round visibility with flexible, real-time execution, we’re able to support both everyday play and high-jackpot moments effectively.

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Maryland Lottery

In the past, we had very specific levels where we would begin high-jackpot advertising. However, due to many factors, that threshold has risen significantly in the past few years. We have also actually moved away from defined thresholds. We now assess sales and other promotional activity and begin high-jackpot advertising fluidly and at much higher jackpot levels. As an example, with the last Powerball jackpot run, we began advertising at about the $400 million level.

We use a tiered or stair-step approach to high jackpot advertising. When we begin to advertise, we use the following assets: Owned platforms like website marquees and prominent callouts on in-store monitors; and social media posts, push notifications and jackpot inclusions in weekly emails.

Next, we layer in lower-cost paid media, like 10- and 15-second radio spots the day before and day of the drawings, and digital billboards that automatically update with jackpot amounts. As the jackpot grows, we continue those tactics but layer in 15-second television commercials, again the day before and day of the drawings. Social media posts get boosted and emails become more frequent.

The threshold for discontinuing high-jackpot advertising has also risen quite a bit. In previous years, we would see earned media starting to take over at the $600 million level. We were also conscious of the responsible gaming implications of encouraging consumers to play when jackpots were high. However, as it has become more difficult to get the media’s attention, we’ve found it effective to continue high-jackpot advertising up to much higher levels. For example, during the Powerball jackpot run that ended in December 2025, we continued advertising up to $1 billion.

We don’t have jackpot-specific strategies, but we feature our jackpot games in various promotions throughout the year that are not jackpot dependent. Maryland has a large draw game portfolio, so it’s difficult to provide all games with paid advertising support. For our in-state jackpot game (Multi-Match), we use our owned assets (both in-store digital and social platforms) to let players know the jackpot is rising. We also highlight that the game is Maryland’s in-state game in our messaging.

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Massachusetts Lottery

In addition to offering our players Mega Millions and Powerball, the Mass Lottery also offers our in-state draw game Megabucks. We utilize social media, email blasts, push notifications, jackpot advisories among other methods to highlight jackpot games and the prize amounts to our players.

On social media, we dedicate at least one weekly post about upcoming weekend jackpots for our three jackpot games, often including a specific callout for a game with a sizeable jackpot amount (Mega Millions and Powerball over $500 million; Megabucks on a case-by-case basis). Depending on our social media calendar, we do include additional posts throughout the week to highlight jackpot amounts on an individual basis ahead of drawings.

For Mega Millions and Powerball, we do ad hoc email blasts to our players and push notifications through the MA Lottery App. This strategy is used during jackpot runs above $500 million to remind players of the next draw date.

For earned media, we release jackpot advisories to the press multiple times a week when a jackpot reaches a certain threshold (Mega Millions and Powerball over $500 million; Megabucks over $10 million). In our jackpot advisories, we highlight the upcoming draw dates, any unique significance with the amount or jackpot run (i.e. fourth largest in game history, largest since game modifications, etc.) as well as the jackpot amount and cash value option for the other draw games featuring jackpot prizes. This is to build momentum for the other games that may not be seeing a surge in play due to a rising jackpot. Advisories are distributed at least twice a week during a run.

At retail, we use digital signage to display the jackpot amounts in store windows. We also have the jackpot amounts on our customer facing displays to reach players at the point of sale.

As for paid advertising, the Mass Lottery dedicates billboard inventory space to Mega Millions and Powerball when the jackpots reach at least a $500 million threshold and at $1 billion it will supersede any other advertising for the duration of the jackpot run.

Montana Lottery

Every Wednesday, we keep our players in the loop with a Jackpot Alert on social media. This is our way of highlighting everything from the big national games to our in-state draw games and Progressive Treasure Play (Fast Play) games. Even when the massive jackpots reset, we keep the momentum going with our “Jackpot Lowdown.” This is a weekly organic post where we pick four of our favorite games to feature, reminding everyone that there are always plenty of ways to win, even if the “big” numbers are just starting to climb again.

Once a jackpot starts getting serious, our “high jackpot” playbook kicks in. We have set thresholds for every game – like $400 million for Powerball or $11 million for Lotto America – that act as a green light for more aggressive advertising. You’ll start seeing dynamic Jackpot Alert slides at our retail terminals, and we’ll put out paid radio spots and social media ads to help spread the word. We treat our local in-state games with that same level of care; they have their own set thresholds that trigger the same “all-hands” marketing approach. By staying consistent with our “low” periods and scaling up for the big ones, we make sure Montana players never miss a chance to play.

We will run paid media when the jackpot is between $500 million to  $700 million. We typically don’t run paid ads past $700 million, just organic posts. We do not run paid ads for Lotto America; we use the $11 million threshold as an internal scale to know when to bump up organic posts and player/sales agent messaging.

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