Strong Foundations: How Game Design Fuels Ad Campaign Success
- Insights Online
- Aug 14
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 19
Two of the industry’s most experienced scratch game designers spill the tea
By Scientific Games
Published August 19, 2025
The games behind lottery advertising campaigns are often the real stars. Game innovation fuels ad campaign success. Even the cleverest creative can fall flat without an engaging and well-designed game.
We caught a few minutes with Senior Lead Designer Anna Rigby and Senior Designer Heidi Hull, who’ve created scratch-off games for Scientific Games lottery customers for over 23 years. Both are members of the company’s game design teams continually innovating new products that give lotteries in North America compelling games to build ad campaigns.
The Interplay Between Game and Campaign Inspiration
Anna Rigby: Product definitely matters. A lottery's ad campaign, no matter how brilliant, is ultimately selling a product. If that game isn't appealing, exciting or unique, the campaign has a much harder job. The game itself is the foundation upon which successful advertising can be created.
While the lottery is the public brand of the ad campaign, Scientific Games partners with customers to create products that provide a strong foundation for campaigns to resonate. Our job is to deliver captivating products with features and scratch experiences that lotteries can effectively promote. A strong game catches the player's attention through a cohesive and very visual design. There's a lot of clutter to break through in the marketplace. We try to create a concise, clear game through a hierarchy of callouts. We want the game to be creative, fun and well-designed, but we don't want to overwhelm the player. That’s a fine line good game designers walk every day.
Heidi Hull: Scientific Games doesn’t just sell games to lotteries. We craft our games carefully. Our designers have been trained in color combinations, font styles and sizes, the hierarchy of callouts, and much more. Because there are only a few seconds when a player is choosing a game among all the others at retail, it has to be eye-catching; it has to pop. We make sure the game themes and features clearly stand out—the design is the basis for ad campaign creative.
The Science Behind Game Design Sells
Anna: Scientific Games teams already know so much about what sells effectively based on the research SG Analytics provides. So, we know what’s most important in game design. We also follow best practices that have been refined here for more than 50 years. We consider all the games in the lottery’s portfolio currently in market, so the game doesn’t cannibalize another product already on sale. We guide the lottery and help with launch plans that are best for their market because of all the millions of data points of research we have available.
Heidi: Each lottery is different, and we know what game characteristics are most important to them. Oftentimes, they already have an idea for a game, but we’ll present them with several options. Our recommendations are based on extensive data and experience, and we've found that games designed with these insights in mind generally provide the strongest foundation for effective ad campaigns. Creating a compelling ad campaign can be more challenging when a game doesn't align with these best practices. Of course, our goal is to deliver an appealing, beautifully produced game.
Anna: Our game development teams also conduct focus groups to learn what’s important to new players and core players. Because these groups are marketed to differently. Core players are there to win. They want ease of winning and better top prize callouts. New players just want to try a game, so we might use a different, fun playstyle or fun art.
Enhancing the Games
Heidi: As we're presenting the game design to the lottery, we might suggest, “Hey, this would pop more on foil. This would look great at retail and in the ad campaign with a Sparkle or Dimension enhancement.” If it’s a licensed, branded game, we might suggest a metallic ink or an enhancement that showcases the brand in the design and makes it stand out. But only if it makes sense to the game design.
Foil - Dimension - Sparkle
Anna: The lottery may tell the designer in advance that they want extra glitz for a specialty game, a holiday game or a $20 or $30 game. We ideate which Strategic Product Enhancement will work best for the game’s design and the lottery’s budget. Now, there are instances where we've already designed a game, and the lottery wants to add an enhancement. A lot of thought goes into the process we follow before making recommendations, especially higher price point games. We focus on the game’s design. We are thinking about the ad campaign, how the game will be positioned, and what it’s competing with in the marketplace.
Heidi: With a family of games, we know they will be marketed as a group. We use color schemes, fonts, tie-in features or graphics to make each of the games different but look like a family. Or there might be an ad banner that is common across the entire family and carried over into the creative campaign.
Anna: More and more scratch products now have a digital component, like hybrid games and games with second-chance opportunities. We make sure the physical and digital products align visually so it’s easy for the lottery to promote. We work closely with our Digital Team on mirroring colors, fonts and graphics. So, there are a lot of talented designers coming together to make the physical and digital play experience seamless.
Beyond the Prize
Heidi: The lottery’s ad campaign might focus on prizes. But the game design has to explain how the game is played, have visual appeal and deliver a great scratch experience. These elements are expertly incorporated by our designers. If it's a new playstyle from the Scientific Games Dream Team, the design components have to educate players. The game has to be visually intuitive. Million-dollar prizes, multipliers and bonus play have to pop. We use design elements to clearly communicate the product and make sure the elements don’t compete.
Anna: Callouts keep the design cohesive and draw attention to the important elements. But we don’t want to overwhelm the player visually. We graphically define elements in bigger to smaller importance. If the game is geared toward a first-time player or an emerging market, we limit callouts and keep it as easy to understand as possible. The background and overall art will be simpler. The game has to be simple to advertise.
Vibrant Ad Campaigns
Heidi: From the science that informs our designs to the talented designers on our teams, we strive to create strong game themes—like popular licensed brands, holiday themes or a family of games. Those themes can provide excellent inspiration for lotteries to develop vibrant, visually recognizable advertising.
Anna: Or the lottery may opt for a feature-driven campaign that promotes unique game mechanics, for example online bonus play or other digital components. The features of the game become the focus of the advertising to attract players who are looking for new ways to play.
Heidi: The science and design innovation experience that goes into our process, coupled with the amazing enhancements we offer, means our games are designed to inspire compelling ad campaigns. But none of this is possible without the communication and creative collaboration we’ve established with our lottery customers to help maximize each campaign’s effectiveness. With a well-designed game, their campaign has a strong foundation. And the sky is the limit on creative marketing, exciting players—and ultimately, sales.
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