Here’s the latest ad from TheLott on TikTok. This is 100% focussed on driving direct digital purchase with no mention of in-store.
While TheLott needs to do what it can to drive sales, and therefore shareholder value, the company places selfish, onerous and restrictive demands on its retailers, denying them the opportunity to maximise opportunities for their retail businesses.
I’d like to see TheLott ease demands and restrictions on its retailers, to allow them to make more profitable use of their retail space. This latest TikTok ad campaign opens an opportunity for this discussion since it is 100% about TheLott’s digital sales.
For those unaware, TheLott imposes tight restrictions on its retailers as to how space is used at, near and leading to the lottery sales counter. These restrictions deny retailers revenue opportunities. One could argue that the rules and restrictions placed on retailers by TheLott are all about branding that, in time, will have played a role in digital migration.
I think TheLott has invested in this TikTok ad because it knows there are shoppers in the TikTok viewer pool they can attract. The restrictions they place on retailers deny them maximising the same opportunity for their businesses.
Lottery purchases will continue to migrate online. It’s convenient for purchase, ticket checking and prize redemption. I am not saying it is over for in-store purchases. Rather, there is more growth opportunity from online I think.
I was at a Shell roadhouse in regional SA (one that is a single independent operator and not part of some larger group of petrol stations) recently that had The Lott products and based on what I saw, its clear that the requirements The Lott places on a business like that are not as strict as the requirements it places on a newsagent business.
Its ridiculous that newsagents have to jump through hoops but petrol stations (even those that are independent and just happen to carry the Shell branding and Shell fuels) don’t have to jump through the same hoops.