Shyla Howell

Marketing Manager, Minnesota Lottery

Published August 19, 2025

Shyla Howell joined the Lottery three years ago, bringing a wealth of experience from her years working in marketing for the horse racing industry, and for media and retail companies.

In May of 2024, the Lottery launched a new convenience mobile app. Shyla not only was instrumental in the development of the app but has done an amazing job laying out a game plan for FY25 (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025) to grow account holder membership, develop customer engagement strategies, and create an integrated app marketing program.

She led the team to create social, website, email, and digital campaigns to grow the new lottery app. She researched and created benchmarks for all aspects of the program to help her team envision what success looked like. And she met her goal to implement strategies and develop workflows for communication within the app. Throughout the year, she has also integrated app promotions and ads into different product campaigns and POP materials at retail.

One tactic Shyla used was integrating app promotions into events. At the 2024 August Minnesota State Fair, the team offered a free gift with mobile app download. Players that showed staff that they had downloaded the MN Lottery Mobile App received a small prize. The app was promoted through a 10’x10’ ad on the side of the booth. With over 2 million visitors to the fair, it was an effective way to promote awareness of the new app and encourage downloads.

Another part of her plan for year one of the app was to cleanse inactive accounts. Working closely with the vendor and the Lottery’s legal counsel, Howell developed an Inactive Member Program to maintain an active and engaged player database and protect players’ personal data. She implemented a quarterly process that includes a communication workflow, with a goal to reactivate players who had not engaged with the Lottery in over 18 months. She wrote communication plans, email content, updated terms and conditions, trained staff, and successfully pushed the project across the finish line.

As a result of her and her team’s hard work, Shyla is on track to meet her goal of 200,000 app downloads this fiscal year.

Since joining the Lottery team, Shyla has tirelessly and enthusiastically pushed the marketing team to innovate, make data-driven decisions, be strategic and efficient, and analyze results to determine success. Her work on the Lottery’s mobile app is only one example of the outstanding work, innovative ideas, and professional attitude that she brings to the table. The Minnesota Lottery team feels lucky to have her, and they know she will help the agency grow and evolve in the future.