For young Australians, photos have become the new social currency. (Each day, over 80 million photos are shared on Instagram alone.) Our idea was to get people to transfer the emotional equity in their photos to their lotto numbers. So we created Picture Pick, the app that turns people’s favourite photos into their lucky lotto numbers. The cloud-based algorithm examines the photo, looking for outlines and areas of high contrast, creating a unique data set that can be overlaid onto a traditional lotto grid and turned into a set of playable numbers.

Players take a photo or choose one from their library. The Picture Pick algorithm uses a mathematical equation known as Canny Edge Detection to identify the edges inside an image. It then loops through the image, pixel by pixel, identifying and ranking edges, histogram values and amount of colours, creating a model of interesting features within the image.

Using the model of features, the algorithm overlays a traditional lottery ticket over the image, splitting it up into lotto games, and lotto numbers. It then loops through each game and number, selecting the highest ranked features within each game. This process generates a set of playable numbers for each game and a lottery ticket based on the image uploaded. Players can then customise, purchase direct from the app or take it into any of The Lott’s 4,500 retailers nationwide. The app was launched on the App Store on 27 April 2017, and supported by point of sale, eDMs and social.

Within a week of launch, Picture Pick had exceeded the client’s target, amassing 3,100 app downloads, 10,645 pictures uploaded and over 190,000 games played.

Frequency and engagement also improved with each user launching the app an average of 3.9 times, while Picture Pick session times averaged 2 minutes 26 seconds. (42% longer than the previous app.)

From a targeting point of view, Picture Pick can also collect each photo’s Exif data. When combined with transactional information, this unlocks a wealth of new data points about our players including geolocation, age, number of shares etc.

Interestingly, over half (52%) of players using Picture Pick were unregistered or new players. And the most popular game played was Saturday Lotto, traditionally the realm of the Lott’s older demographic. Proof that Picture Pick is changing the way young Australians play lotto.