California State Lottery Issues Advertising RFP

California State Lottery has issued an RFP for lead advertising and integrated marketing services for all Lottery products with the objective of maximizing contributions to public education.

Background:

The Lottery’s mission is to generate supplemental funding for public education. Fiscal Year 2016/17 was another strong year for the Lottery, with sales of approximately $6.3 billion and nearly $1.5 billion earned for California public schools. Lottery products are sold statewide at more than 22,000 retail locations, from independent neighborhood shops to convenience stores, liquor stores to supermarkets, and more. The Lottery’s retail product offerings include an average of 24 fun and entertaining Scratchers® games and several draw games, including jackpot games such as Powerball®, Mega Millions®, and SuperLotto Plus®, and daily games such as Fantasy 5 and Hot Spot®. Through the alignment of product plans, marketing campaigns, and sales team efforts, the Lottery has grown to be the second largest lottery in the U.S. The Lottery’s goal is to become the largest lottery in the U.S.

The Lottery’s current general market agency partner is David & Goliath, LLC (D&G), with its subcontractor Initiative handling media planning and buying. D&G’s contract expires August 18, 2018.

Additionally, the Lottery has contracts with the following agencies:

• Casanova//McCann for Spanish language consumer advertising
• Time Advertising for Asian in-language consumer advertising
• Muse Communications for African American consumer advertising
• Alcone Marketing Group for point-of-sale and promotional marketing
• Olson + Co for digital services

Scope of Work:

• Foster an environment where “partnering with the Lottery” and “thinking outside of the box” are part of the Agency culture;
• Demonstrate unequivocal marketplace success at building and sustaining brands in positions of category leadership;
• Deliver breakthrough creative based on consumer insights driven by a diverse set of data sources to generate sales. Specifically, demonstrate outstanding creative capabilities across all media channels (traditional/non-traditional/ digital/ mobile/ social);
• Demonstrate innovation in media and communications planning; be on the cutting edge of the latest ad tech, including econometric modeling to inform and evaluate media plans and enhance ROI;
• Demonstrate expertise in leveraging data-driven consumer insights to inform creative and media-buying strategies;
• Embrace a total-market approach, integrating broad and targeted marketing to address California’s diverse population;
• Provide an integrated marketing mindset and seamless integration across a world class suite of services and relevant best-in-class resources – particularly in media planning and buying as well as digital creative and media.
• Deliver best-in-class account leadership with strong involvement in the strategic process and the ability to lead integration across all projects to ensure consistency and excellence in the Agency’s work product;
• At the Lottery’s direction, provide effective leadership and a collaborative approach with other agency partners, third parties, and internal Lottery teams to foster cross- team collaboration and minimize foundational disagreements; and
• Commit a team of experienced professionals to the account that is fully immersed in the business from top to bottom, takes initiative, and continually strives to improve.

Preferred Experience:  The ideal Agency will have a successful track record of:

• Developing and executing innovative brand- and transaction-focused creative based on strategic account planning and insightful strategy development that drive sales;
• Developing highly-integrated, consumer-centric communications programs across different media and channels with a significant digital/new-technologies focus;
• Developing best-in-class digital and social media programs;
• Experience with clients in gaming and entertainment industries; and
• Experience with low-cost consumer products sold in convenience stores, liquor stores, and supermarkets.

Media Capabilities: The ideal Agency will have a successful track record of:

• Developing innovative and integrated cross-channel communications plans, where creative strategy and media strategy are aligned from the beginning and messaging leverages the inherent value of each specific medium to meet desired objectives;
• Best-in-class media research, tools, and analytics, including audience insights, programmatic buying for established and emerging formats, cross-channel measurement and attribution, and econometric models to inform and evaluate media plan performance and optimize media ROI;
• Best-in-class media buying across all relevant and emerging channels, including local broadcast (TV and radio), out-of-home, print, and digital (social, mobile, and search media);
• Expertise in handling traditional and digital syndication and branded content; and
• Delivering optimal rates and added value to enhance overall ROI.

Digital & Mobile: The Lottery expects its Agency to be on the cutting edge of marketing and the latest technologies in digital, mobile, and emerging platforms. With the continual growth of consumer usage of digital devices for entertainment and information, these are important channels to reach our consumers. The Agency will be responsible for developing, executing, and tracking integrated digital campaigns including search marketing.

Social Media: The Lottery wants to increase social media marketing efforts on new and existing platforms. At the Lottery’s direction, the Agency will be responsible for creating real-time, data-driven strategic plans that include content production and influencer marketing to grow awareness and engagement.

Production: The Lottery is seeking best-in-class digital and broadcast/television video production capabilities and experience, including off-line editing, talent, and business affairs.

Research: Conduct market research studies (e.g. recall tests, copy and motivation tests, media weight tests, and attitude studies), that assist the Lottery in the areas of strategic planning, retailer attitudes and retail audits. These studies may be qualitative or quantitative and may be ad hoc or ongoing projects.

Promotions and Experiential Marketing: The Lottery needs an Agency that can bring fresh thinking and big ideas outside of traditional advertising and media channels to its marketing  efforts.  The  Agency  may  be  responsible  for  developing  experiential and promotional programs that forge deeper engagement between the Lottery and its players.

Public Relations: The Lottery may require its Agency to provide integrated PR capabilities in the areas of media relations, crisis communications, event management, and cross- cultural outreach.

Due Date:

August 22, 2017

Address:

CALIFORNIA STATE LOTTERY
700 North 10th Street Sacramento
California 95811-0393

Finn Partners and Edelman PR are good candidates in California for this assignment.