When it comes to large payout multi-state Lottery jackpot games, New York has historically been ruled by Mega Millions, embraced by New Yorkers since it was introduced in 2002. After Lottery cross sell regulations were loosened in January 2010, states were allowed to sell both Mega Millions and Powerball tickets. New York took advantage of this ruling by launching the jackpot game Powerball in February 2010.

Powerball is an American lottery game sold by 45 state lotteries as a shared jackpot game. Players purchase tickets reflecting their number selections. The more player numbers matched with the randomly selected winning numbers, the larger the jackpot won.

Mega Millions and Powerball each held drawings twice a week, so the assumption was that New Yorkers would jump at the chance to win life-changing jackpots four days a week. Our 2010 launch advertising approach positioned Powerball as a complement to Mega Millions to get Mega Millions players excited about these additional opportunities to win each week.

This approach fell flat. Even when the Powerball jackpot was higher, players still tended to purchased Mega Millions tickets. In an undifferentiated environment, habit & brand loyalty caused powerful inertia. Because both games played exactly the same way and each was $1 per play, New Yorkers saw little distinction between them and therefore had no incentive to change their behavior.

Our task became clear: Powerball needed its own identity if it was going to get any traction with New Yorkers.

Making the hurdle even higher

In January 2012, the Powerball game nationally underwent various enhancements in order to strengthen the game and its consumer selling proposition. Players were given better odds, an increased 2nd prize of $1 million cash (previously $250,000) and, perhaps most importantly, a starting jackpot that was doubled to $40 million.