With Loto sales falling amongst young people, we knew we needed to make a major change in the way millennials viewed the Loto, but we were also aware that changing the game itself was next to impossible due to regulation and red tape. Instead, we developed a new way for millennials to play the lottery that could easily be integrated into the existing loto draw. Using the latest facial recognition technology we developed a web app that could turn anyone’s face in a unique, 6 digit lottery number.

Lucky Face allows a selfie obsessed generation to use their own likeness for a chance to win a fortune. By shifting the focus from choosing lucky numbers to playing with your face we were able to reinvent the lottery in a way that appealed to an entire new generation of players, without having to make any changes to the existing loto draw.

It was important that people could participate in the Loto by taking an ordinary selfie without downloading an app or using a special device. Lucky Face only requires users to post to Instagram or visit our website and take/upload a selfie to play the Loto. We utilized Microsoft’s latest facial recognition API to build a web app that analyzes the photo, detects the users face and uses their unique facial features to generate a six-digit number that was compatible with the existing lottery draw. We targeted our audience on the platforms where the selfie is king, Instagram and Facebook. Players could play directly on Instagram by posting using our hashtag and then receiving a customized link to purchase or driven to the microsite from other platforms. The entire activation took place over the course of two draw cycles with the idea for further implementation moving forward after the campaigns success.

The results were unanimous. In a single week we sold a record 53.138 tickets, reversing a 3 months consecutive decline. Website traffic increased by over %15,00 and we received over 2 million impressions on social media and local news websites. We received news coverage from the each of the three largest television networks worth over $200,000.The campaign received a record 94% positive sentiment across all mentions and the band enjoyed a 90% increase in brand buzz. The brand plans to permanently implement Lucky Face into all future draws and is in negotiations to franchise the propriety algorithm to other lotteries across the world creating an additional stream of revenue.