About Varelotteriet
Established in 1887, Varelotteriet is one of Denmark’s oldest lotteries, running multiple draws each month. Their Danish customers continue to spend large amounts with Varelotteriet annually, purchasing a vast amount of tickets. The majority of all ticket sales are distributed back to players and all profits go to charitable, social, and humanitarian purposes in agreement with the Ministry of Justice.
The Challenge
Historically, lottery ticket sales have taken place across a variety of Danish shops and retailers – from kiosks and supermarkets to paint shops, bakers, and bookstores. Although it is now possible to purchase lottery tickets online, over half of the ticket sales still take place in physical shops. Therefore, performance in the retail sales channel is strategically very important for the future of Varelotteriet.
Back in the early days of the lottery, these retailers would hold a personal relationship with all their customers and be able to remind them to renew their lottery ticket. In today’s world, these relationships are no longer the same and selling lottery tickets isn’t a top priority for the retailers.
So, the main challenge for Varelotteriet was finding a way to influence consumers to purchase tickets in physical stores, as well as influence those retailers to sell more lottery tickets.
Varelotteriet’s strategic goal was to create a digital footprint of each of their consumers and retail outlets. The aim was to match up the offline and online data, creating a unified ecosystem which would provide clear insights into the consumers’ purchasing behaviour.
The Solution
Varelotteriet was in search of a Customer Data Platform that would allow them to have a unified customer view across all channels. Besides a CDP, they were looking for a platform that could provide artificial intelligence and predictive modelling to reach the right customers at the right time, as well as an automation solution to ensure that their communications were executed on the right channel. Varelotteriet also needed a team of digital experts to help guide them through enhancing and optimising their digital marketing strategy. As a result, the partnership between Mapp and Ambition was created. While Ambition acts as a goal- and activity tracker, Mapp takes it to the next level by feeding all the data into the integrated API and then into Mapp Cloud.
Millionaire League Campaign
Varelotteriet’s campaign objective was to be able to recognise players and dealers and their associated behaviours in an optimised marketing tech stack, where any action would create a visible and measurable response across physical stores and digital channels. The campaign ran across 13 weeks.
Varelotteriet used Mapp Cloud to identify potential lottery players, based on current player profiles, and served them with dynamic display banners while they were in range of retailers that sold tickets. When someone clicked on one of these banners, they would be given directions to the closest dealer through geotracking. The landing page with these details also featured incentives and prizes that could be won by purchasing a lottery ticket to further encourage the consumer to follow the directions.
Mapp and Ambition also worked together to create a competition element for the retailers selling lottery tickets. Through automated SMS messages, the ticket dealers were encouraged to sell as many tickets as possible. The highest-ranking retailers could win prizes and recognition for being at the top of the leader board. This Millionaire League campaign created a regular reminder and competitive spirit among retailers, even though selling lottery tickets was not their primary business focus.
The Result
Three-hundred per cent increase in sales across all retailers
The two campaigns produced the best results so far in the 134-year history of Varelotteriet. Over the 13-week sales cycle, sales across participating lottery retailers tripled.
One thousand per cent increase in sales with winning retailer
The retailer who won the Millionaire League competition overall increased lottery ticket sales by a whopping 1000 per cent.
As well as these outstanding results, the campaign created an increase in positive awareness among the retailers. Sales motivation was at an all-time high, even among retailers who were previously considered as less active ticket sellers.
Today, Varelotteriet is able to follow players’ behaviour across platforms and channels and, using predictive models, recruit new players – both within a particular retailer’s industry or a specific geographic area whose data justifies this.
Why Mapp and Ambition were the perfect partnership for Varelotteriet
“The combination of leveraging our own data and the digital expertise provided by the strategy team at Ambition along with the amazing capabilities of Mapp Cloud, means that we have been able to gain a higher visibility than ever before on our consumer and dealer networks. By reaching this goal, Varelotteriet has turned insights into action, connecting with the right customer, at the right time, on the right channel with the right message – something we’ve never been able to achieve previously. The results speak for themselves, and we couldn’t have chosen a better partnership than Mapp and Ambition to help us on our journey.” Peter Jørgensen, Deputy Director at Varelotteriet