Maryland Lottery:
OLD BAY Bucks

An appetizing scratch-off campaign that’s fun,
magical and just a little bit spicy.

Challenge

Two things Marylanders love: playing the Maryland Lottery and putting OLD BAY® on just about everything. So when the Maryland Lottery asked GKV to create an integrated campaign for OLD BAY Bucks scented scratch-offs, it was a match made in heaven. Elements included TV, radio, point of sale, out of home, digital and social media.

Challenger Brand Solution

Symbols of Re‑Evaluation

A scratch-off that smells like OLD BAY®? That sounds like a fantasy. And that’s exactly what GKV did. The launch of the OLD BAY Bucks Scratch-Off was timed to coincide with the sales seasonality of OLD BAY to provide the Maryland Lottery with the maximum selling period. The ticket was launched just before the 4th of July weekend, and the Lottery events team optimized the use of OLD BAY during its busy summer event schedule.

At Launch

The Maryland Lottery used the opportunity of a live televised drawing to showcase the game, complete with a sandy beach setting around a popular Downtown Baltimore waterfront hotspot, OLD BAY, and Maryland Lottery mascots and t-shirt/product giveaways. The Lottery created a wide range of marketing materials to highlight the fun and, in some ways, quirkiness of a seafood-based seasoning product featured on a scratch-off game.

Results

Over 28 million media impressions

Over 7,000 social media comments and shares

OLD BAY Bucks outperformed every $2 game in FY19, making it the best-selling and most popular $2 ticket in FY19

Among the highest advertising recall of any Maryland Lottery television commercials tested (76%)

High reported ad recall six months after the campaign stopped airing (44%)

High purchase intent (81%) among scratch-off players

The campaign in a crabshell.

Take one deliciously fun scratch-off game that smells like OLD BAY®. Add three hunky mermen, a floating clamshell throne and one daydreaming employee and what do you get? A record-setting, integrated campaign that smells great and performs even better.

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