The Power of Packaging

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How is a lottery supposed to breakthrough the logjam of products? More than ever before, eye-catching design and bold packaging is the element that will help lotteries dominate the checkout.

How important is package design in drawing consumer attention at the checkout?

In a landmark consumer survey, nearly three quarters of American consumers said package design influences their purchasing decisions. These trends are applicable across the whole spectrum of retail and the consumer-packaged goods industries.

For example, a national survey of U.S. consumers found that half of all grocery store customers bought new or unfamiliar products based on an eye-catching package design. For online shoppers, the results were even stronger: two thirds of respondents who order groceries online said they purchased new products because of an item’s packaging.

These findings are particularly important for the lottery industry, where impulse buys at checkout are a critical element in the overall retail strategy. For example, the Michigan Lottery, which is the fastest growing lottery jurisdiction in the United States, found that 54% of players bought tickets on impulse while visiting a retail location. And the vast majority of total ticket purchases in Michigan (73%) involved games that had bold print and design innovations like Pollard Banknote’s Scratch FX®.

So, if impulse buys are that critical to overall sales, and packaging is a key element in driving those purchases at checkout, then how are you going to ensure that your tickets draw the attention of consumers? Look to Pollard Banknote, who has been providing an answer to this question for many years.

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California Lottery Crossword Strategy

Since 2004, the California State Lottery has maintained enduring popularity within its Scratchers® crossword category. To continually captivate players, they've introduced new price points, themes, colors, and game styles over the years. Following the success of their $20 Scratchers® ticket, the Lottery eagerly sought their next big hit, which led to the creation of the Crossword Xtreme, introducing California players to the Lottery’s first $30 Scratchers® crossword.

This innovative Scratchers® ticket features Pollard Banknote’s Spectrum Scratch FX® to enhance the ticket and draw attention to the new higher price point, as well as including popular play features such as 3 puzzle grids with individual multipliers, 4 bonus words, and a $500 bonus. Unsurprisingly, players have enthusiastically embraced it, with the first iteration of Crossword Xtreme Scratchers®, launched in 2023, accounting for over $176 million in sales within the first 15 weeks, contributing to a remarkable 31% increase in the overall crossword category during this time! The Lottery launched its second iteration of Crossword Xtreme Scratchers® in 2024, and it continues to rank in the top four selling games each week.

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Niké 10€ Super FARBIČKY Family of Games

Niké, Slovakia’s largest sports betting company, is also no stranger when it comes to innovative and eye-catching ticket designs. Niké was the first international lottery to launch an instant ticket featuring Pollard Banknote’s Deco FX®. More so, Niké is the only lottery in the world to do so as part of a family of games. And in 2023, Niké continued innovating with Pollard Banknote to launch the FARBIČKY (Colors) family of extended play games.

With three price points (€1, €2, and €10) and the lottery’s first €10 within a family of games, FARBIČKY took full advantage of Pollard Banknote’s multi-color transparent and Spectrum Scratch FX® to really help highlight the new €10 ticket, ensuring it stood out from the crowd to draw the attention of players.

The Spectrum Scratch FX® strategy has clearly worked, as the €10 FARBIČKY ticket has become one of Niké’s most popular games at that price point.

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North Carolina Education Lottery – The Perfect Gift

Did you know that lotteries can lose much of their retail penetration because popular oversized tickets don’t fit into traditional dispensers? It’s a problem that helped Pollard Banknote develop a new proprietary product: EasyPack™. It’s a ground-breaking innovation that allows oversized tickets to get full penetration in retail stores through traditional dispensers and Instant Ticket Vending Machines.

The North Carolina Education Lottery wanted to make a big splash in 2023 with the introduction of a new festive holiday-themed game called The Perfect Gift, an oversized $20 holiday game that featured two leading-edge innovations from Pollard Banknote: EasyPack™ and Scratch FXtra®.

EasyPack™ – an 8x8-inch ticket that is folded into a 4x8-inch fan-folded book – ensured that this dynamic new game would be available through traditional retail dispensers and ITVMs. And to help The Perfect Gift stand out from other games, it was super-charged with Pollard Banknote’s eye-catching Scratch FXtra™, part of the Scratch FX® family of Pollard Banknote print innovations that has generated more than USD 40 billion in global retail sales. Scratch FXtra™ allows for the introduction of eye-catching holographic patterns, ensuring tickets were so visually striking, they would be unmissable at retail.

Over its first 10 weeks of sales, The Perfect Gift emerged as the lottery’s top-selling $20 holiday game ever, surpassing the previous bestseller by an impressive 41%. The combination of innovative physical design to make use of retail dispensers and ITVMs, along with the bold visual impact of Scratch FXtra™, proved to be just the ticket.

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Conclusion

In countless examples in markets all over the globe, our lottery partners have proven that dynamic, eye-catching designs and print innovations are the key to drawing the attention of players and driving higher sales. With the dizzying array of impulse-buy options at retail checkout, a ticket that pops visually is no longer a luxury. It’s an essential tool to drive sales.

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