Moderated by WLA Executive Director, Luca Esposito and EL Communications Officer, Lucy Lenaers-Mathieson, the two-day event started with welcome addresses that acknowledged the recent train tragedy in Spain and expressed sympathy for the victims, their families and all those affected.
Andreas Kötter, WLA President underscored that lotteries are in a very competitive environment and must tell the industry’s great story, which is to raise funds to help good causes and positively impact societies around the world, in a responsible manner. He also noted that the customer counts and lotteries must communicate about their products and services in their stories and be part of our customers’ dreams.
Romana Girandon, EL President, noted that as marketeers on the frontline of the sector which is becoming more competitive, lotteries must prove and demonstrate how lotteries maximize benefit for society. She highlighted that numbers and stories transform and our industry must tell stories that connect our numbers to purpose and play.
Trust is paramount
On the first day, we heard from keynote speakers, lotteries and agencies about the importance of content and the art of storytelling. A common recuring theme was the need to be authentic, connect to human emotions and build trust in every message.
Keynote speaker, Jack Murray, CEO & Founder, MediaHQ and All Good Tales, gave an inspiring presentation on how to master the art of storytelling, with a call to action: asking the audience what changes would it make after the event?
Explaining that storytelling is a way not a thing; it must be mission driven and we all must be the change that we want to see. If we ask the questions, what does great storytelling look like? What do we want to talk about? And what does the audience want to hear? The magic slice is where the answers overlap and resonate.
Hana Barochova, Head of Category Management - Lotteries Allwyn International & Executive Chair, EL MaC Working Group, emphasized message before medium, but it must not be overengineered for political correctness or so carefully calculated to the point of undermining authenticity and emotional credibility.
MarÃa L. Núñez, Deputy Director of Communications, CSR and Institutional Relations, SELAE, Spain presented on El Gordo an example of incredible story that  communicates emotional and cultural connection of the Christmas Lottery for all ages. It’s a social phenomenon deeply rooted in Spain, symbolizing unity and hope through sharing.
Storytelling within legal limits - Global perspectives from lottery CEOs
Ray Bates, EL Hononary President, discussed the event’s theme with Andreas Kötter, CEO, WestLotto, Germany, where advertising restrictions means the lottery must find other ways to get its message across to players.
The discussion highlighted the cultural and regulatory differences within the European region. Kötter noted that a good story is not perceived the same way in Germany as it is in Spain with its El Gordo success.
Lottery story telling takes years to build the brand and trust around it. At Westlotto, the corporate brand and strategy come first, building trust, products, and then the messaging is aligned with the corporate brand, which is hard to change without losing trust.
In Germany, where lotteries cannot talk about the good causes they support, WestLotto has worked to ensure that the beneficiaries always mention the support they receive from lotto.
US Panel
The panel of US Lottery CEOs was moderated by WLA Executive Director, Luca Esposito. Panelists Rebecca Paul, President and CEO, Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation; Gretchen Corbin, President and CEO, Georgia Lottery Corporation, and Mark Michalko, Executive Director, North Carolina Education Lottery, discussed the importanceof storytelling and explained some of the ways they do it in a country where rules can differ from state to state.
All panelists agreed that story telling from the view of lottery beneficiaries was the most powerful way to get the lottery’s message across.
Key takeaways
Rebecca Paul
The Tennessee Education Lottery funds educational programs primarily focused on college scholarships, grants, pre-kindergarten programs, and after-school programs.
After hearing discussions during the Barcelona event, Paul noted that her lottery should be more where the players are to be able to tell different stories.
Regarding sports betting, she explained that in the US, few lotteries offered such products, but large stadiums of fans provided a captive audience for telling the lottery’s story. The Multistate Lottery (MUSL) has found another way to be associated with sports, through sponsoring athletes, or in the case of NASCAR, one of the racers. She added that MUSL was working with American football to develop a game.
Gretchen Corbin
Corbin explained that when you buy a ticket in Georgia, a student wins, because the Georgia Lottery funds specific educational programs, such as the HOPE Scholarship & Grants, for students pursuing undergraduate degrees or technical certificates, and the Georgia pre-kindergarten Program for four-year-olds.
She noted that a way to make recipients the brand ambassador was to have students and parents to tell their story of the financial support and underscored the importance of recording and sharing these stories.
Mark Michalko
At the North Carolina Education Lottery, funds raised go to pay for school construction, need-based college financial aid, transportation, salaries for non-instructional support staff, and pre-kindergarten for at-risk four-year-olds.
For Michalko, the main takeaway was that the story must target the heart and be felt by people. He added that the most compelling way to get the message across in a world flooded with media was to have the beneficiary or winner tell the lottery’s story, whether an individual or a new school, heart warming stories resonate with people.
