The disconnect for retailers in the Tatts marketing
It feels like social media Marketing by Tatts has increased. I am seeing it regularly, through browsers and apps on devices that are scrubbed of cache history. Each ad pitches in-store. However, that is where it ends. While through each ad you can go to their online store, there is no easy link to local retailers, retailers near my then location.
I clicked buy now on the ad in the image above. Here is where it took me:
If I was a Tatts retailer, I’d want it to also pitch the closest shops open now where I can buy in-store now or soon, based on location and opening hours. It would be easy for Tatts to do.
What Tatts is doing now, by showing in-store as a purchase option on their marketing is ticking a box, paying lip service to their commitment to promote in-store purchase.
A company that genuinely supports its retail network would make finding nearby retailers easier. It would also be clever at using tech to enable the sale of lottery products to local shoppers through websites and Facebook pages run by local retailers. Thereby leveraging local retailers for online purchases, supporting local communities, appreciating the extraordinary investment by local retailers in promoting tatts brands consistently and nationally, often in places the Tatts outdoors marketing could not otherwise reach.
The current in-store text on Tatts marketing is of no commercial benefit whatsoever to Tatts product retailers in my view.
Lottoland blitzing social media for Australia Day
Lottoland blitzed Facebook and Instagram last week with an ad pitching an Australia Day promotion. This from a company federal politicians thought they had dealt with.
This company has not gone away. It is not going away. Lotteries, especially app / online access lotteries and ‘lotteries’ continue to be in play.
Lottery vending machines
I am back from being part of a retail study tour covering four major cities in the US and in each I saw lottery vending machines like these. Usually in public places, often outside of shops. You can buy game tickets as well as scratch tickets.
While Australia is way ahead of the rest of the world in terms of online lottery ticket purchase options, the US is way ahead in terms of self serve physical ticket / game purchase.
No matter how you look at it, the route to market disruption is supplier driven in this space.
Self checkouts for lotteries
Self serve vending machines for lotteries in the US have been around for years. This unit, which I saw at the New York Lotteries office near Wall Street, is new to me. It leverages the self checkout technology that is similar to what we see in local Aussie supermarkets.
You can buy and check lottery tickets. There are quick pick options as well as the opportunity to select your numbers. It also reads paper prepared tickets. It’s easy to use.
With the labour cost of selling lottery tickets a big cost per ticket sale, it makes sense that engaged lottery operators continue to look at ways of cutting the labour costs in each ticket purchase.
This self serve machine does not validate the age of the customer. In the US the closest you get to that with any o the self-serve and vending machines for lotteries that I have seen is a sign declaring that you need to be 18 or above to purchase lottery tickets.
I don’t know of Tatts in Australian is working on self-serve machines like this one. It would make sense if they were as they need to combat the growing competition for everyday gambling and this means being more accessible to customers … being in more outlets and making online even easier too.
Lottoland under spotlight following launch of financial system betting games
Lottoland have confronted the ban in Australia on their lottery betting from January 1, 2019, launching jackpot betting on financial market results.
This looks and feels like a move to get around the ban. Following a complaint, ASIC is considering an investigation, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. ASIC is one of several bodies looking at what Lottoland is doing.
The Herald understands the complaint, lodged on Friday, suggest Lottoland may be offering a financial service through the “jackpot betting” product.
Sources with knowledge of the complaint said it raised concerns that by using financial market data to create a lottery draw, Lottoland may be making a market for its own over-the-counter products.
Other industry sources told the Herald if Lottoland was using financial markets to simply generate a string of random numbers to determine a win, which would not be a financial service, this could instead leave it in breach of the Interactive Gambling Act.
However, Lottoland chief executive Luke Brill said “jackpot betting” was just the start of a series of new products the company expected to bring to the market this year.
I can’t see how this will end well for Lottoland given the 9investment by politicians already. However, the people at Lottoland have plenty i nested in Australia so it should have been anticipated by the politicians and those who wrote the legislation that they would look for ways around it.
What is interesting with this latest financial market product is that it is based on the financial markets, including the US. If you try and access Lottoland in the US you see this:
While the bigger challenges for newsagents are the migration of lottery purchases online as well as diversification in easy to access gambling products, Lottoland will draw more attention as it is an understood and unifying target for retailers, and because it launched in Australia with a campaign mocking newsagents.
It is unfortunate that stage based VANA and NANA newsagent associations backed Lottoland last year in the organisation’s fight to offer its lottery betting products.
ALNA has engaged on the latest moved by Lottoland. Read here.
More news outlets quitting lotto
In New York over Christmas I saw more news outlets with a sign like this: No Lotto. The terminal was not down. No, they had removed Lotto from the business. The move is a surprise in that the footprint commitment to offering Lotto is small. The small format shops offer newspapers, magazines, tobacco and convenience style gifts.
As Tatts extends its reach and demands on its retail network I wonder if we will see more in Australia quit its products.
If their recent handling of employee wage record keeping and pay conditions is anything to go by I suspect more Tatts franchisees will consider a business without the intrusive overlord as one retailer called them recently when we were talking about Tatts’ demands on them.
Tatts Powerball ads on TV
If I was a Tatts retailer I’d be frustrated to see them advertising the Powerball $50M jackpot for last night on TV after 6pm. It makes a mockery of the purchase pitch that includes in-store when, by then,. stores are closed.
I suspect this is all about online customer acquisition as those who do purchase online are less likely to purchase in-store again.
What hope is there for a shingle?
On Twitter, someone was looking to buy stamps and asked Australia Post about whether certain outlets would sell them. No mention of newsasgencies or newsagents. Instead, the reference used was tatts lotto.
@auspost do you know if tatts lotto or coles sells stamps?
— giveaways are pinned (@daddiejimin) December 31, 2018
I have said at conferences and elsewhere that having lottery products in a shop, and all their associated collateral, do more to define a ‘type’ of business than any shingle. The presence of lottery products set shopper expectations in terms of product mix, hours and customer service.
I think this tweet supports that.
No, I’m not criticising lotteries or lottery products. Rather, I am making an observation that a major product category sets shopper expectation in independent retail.
Tatts ignores retailers in Set For Life social media marketing
This ad for Tatts appeared in the Facebook feed on my phone over the weekend. Take a look, nowhere does it pitch in-store purchase. This ad is 100% about direct purchase by the customer through the Tatts App.
Since I have the Tatts App on my phone, the ad has a button “Use App” that I can click to easily and immediately make the purchase.
This type of marketing is what I would do if I was Tatts. It is efficient and enhances the direct shopper relationship. This has to be a core focus for their business.
Purchases through the App drive shopper stickiness in ways the in-store purchase cannot. This is just one of many reasons the direct shopper is more interesting and valuable to Tatts.
Retailers cannot compete in the evolution of lottery purchases in my view. I hope I am wrong, I hope I am missing things in my assessment of what I see coming.
Lottoland noise continues
Lottoland continues to pitch regularly on TV and by email. Their latest pitch is around the $2.2B prize. I know retailers who are frustrated that the legislation did not force an immediate shutdown of these pitches from Lottoland.
There appears to have been no slow down in their operation – based on TVC airings and emails being sent.
I suspect each Lottoland pitch gets more people signed up and that has to be the core goal of the company – account openings.
Their email on the weekend also pitched a syndicate offer with a discount. It that it targets growing their reach through a familiar type of product. Lottoland is not showing signs of leaving any time soon and while their ads no longer mock newsagents, their pitch makes playing lotteries online look appealing … and that is the biggest challenge to retailers.
Tatts’s SyndiMate tool an opportunity for retailers
SyndiMate, launched by Tatts, supports customer-organised in-store syndicate purchases. It looks like a helpful tool for driving in-store sales.
I’d be interested to hear what lottery retailers think. Maybe I am missing something. If not, kudos to Tatts.
Lotterywest: rewards for growth
I like the Rewards For Growth initiative from Lotterywest. It focuses retailers on the key goal: sales growth. The pitch in their latest retailer email is simple and to the point:
Next week you’ll find out if you’re one of 129 retailers sharing in over $75,000 for achieving your sales target for the first quarter this financial year.
You’ll also find out what your NMS% target is for this quarter.
Stay tuned for exciting news on how you can earn rewards for increasing your Scratch’n’Win sales in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
Focussing on sales targets at the supplier, retailer and store level employee level is more important than busy work that tatts focusses on through their stress inducing compliance program.
How can Tatts rescue its relationship with newsagents?
Tatts needs to do something pretty amazing to rebuild its relationship with newsagents. The damage done over the last ten or so years, until the takeover by Tabcorp, was significant.
Urgent action by the management people a Tatts is needed to get newsagents and other small business lottery retailers back on side.
Here are a few simple steps that Tatts could take that would, in my view, immediately improve the situation and, most likely, improve revenue:
- Move focus to sales with same store year on year sales being the only metric for measurement of performance.
- Stop assessment visits. Stop penalising retailers for infractions such as other products on the counter and other ‘infractions’ that are yet to be shown to be detrimental to sales.
- Introduce a modest financial reward for year on year growth.
- Encourage leveraging the Tatts space in-store for other products.
- Make it easier for shoppers to find their local retailer on all Tatts digital touch points.
This is not a big list. It would not cost anything to implement. Tatts could even trial it nationally to June 30, 2019 and see how it performs.
By making it a trial, Tatts encourages buy-in from the whole retail channel so the moves are a win at the local business level and a win for Tatts.
I doubt any of the five items on the list would have a detrimental impact on sales. In fact, I think they could have a positive impact. All it would taker is a management decision by Tatts to trial this list or something similar. It would a good next step to resetting the relationship, respecting the retail channel and showing that the relationship has moved on to new times.
Revenue is what matters to Tatts and to retailers. The current approach is handled at the store level in such a way that it can be a disincentive. It also lacks respect. The approach I suggest respects the local business owners and acknowledged a shared objective.
New lottery outlets impact the value of an existing businesses
Imagine the impact on your newsagency with lotteries if a new outlet opens a few minutes walk away.
Imagine you’ve worked hard for years to build up your business, traded through tough economic times and here you are experiencing nice growth and, finally, feeling that your head is above water.
And then you discover a new competitor, a business just like yours, with lotteries is to open and, for sure, take some of your customers.
In these weeks or months when you know a competitor is coming it can do your head in as you worry abut revenue leaking from your business, growth you have achieved being wiped off. It can be distressing and can have you looking at the situation in an unhealthy way.
Once the competitor opens you have a new target, the new business. Even though they are new, and maybe new at business, it can play on your mind and have you acting irrationally.
I have never seen support from Tatts for this situation, where they have approved (encouraged?) a competitor to open close and take business from you.
This scenario of Tatts approving a new outlet close to a existing outlet is not new. It’s happened before. It’s happening now. It’s set to happen again.
I get that Tatts has the right to appoint new outlets and needs to do so as part of its business plan. However, from what I have seen, their process of deciding on new outlets, especially those close to existing outlets, is not transparent and can harm small family businesses.
There is no reasonable and independent path of review or appeal. Tatts is investigator, judge and jury. The small business negatively affected by a plan by Tatts to approve a competitor outlet is weak compared to Tatts in the process.
While I am no lawyer, from what I can tell it is a state or territory issue if a business owner wanted to agitate on this. Points of compliant and agitation could include tribunals such as QCAT, VCAT and the CTTT, small business ombundsmen, small business commissioners and, maybe but it is a long shot, state / territory gaming commissions.
I would like to see Tatts agree a code of conduct that offers structured measurable criteria for Tatts assessing and approving new outlets and that respect the position off any existing nearby outlet within a reasonable distance of any proposed new outlet. This process needs to respect existing small businesses ahead of any benefit perceived buy people at Tatts.
If I’m wrong in what I have written here, if Tatts does have processes I suggest they establish, please outline them in comments below.
Footnote: I don ‘t have lotteries in businesses I own for several reasons including this one. I don’t want a business that is easily impacted by decisions by a core supplier. A newsagency without lotteries can thrive.
Lottoland going nowhere, building their database
On TV the other night Lottoland claimed 700,000 Australian customers. Their pitches have not slowed since parliament set a date for their closure in Australia. Emails like this one in the image show clever campaigning on their part to get punters to part with their cash.
I wonder if the marketing is all part of a plan to remain connected with these shoppers long after the sunset of their traditional Australian offering becomes illegal. Nothing else makes sense.
Lottosend, another lottery competitor for lottery retailers
I received an email yesterday from Lottosend yesterday, promoting a service whereby they purchase lottery tickets to order. This the first I have heard of them. I can’t find any Australian news stories abut them.
What they appear to offer is different to Lottoland and the other lottery betting products. Their offer is to physically purchase tickets and collect winnings. Check out this, from their website:
Lottosend is an online lottery ticket service that offers a simple, trustworthy and comfortable way to take part in the biggest and most popular licensed lotteries in the world, like the EuroMillions and Mega Millions.
Our mission is to provide customers from all over the world with the opportunity to participate in some of the most popular lottery jackpots from the comfort of their PC or mobile device.
Our team includes a group of professional experts with a wide spectrum of skills gained from years of experience in the gaming and lottery industry, meaning you’re in great hands.
Our new website offers a seamless way to play licensed lotteries. Just choose your preferred lottery, select your favorite numbers or use our easy Quick Pick tool to purchase your tickets.
Once you’ve bought your tickets, our team of local agents will do the rest, carrying out your order at an official lottery retailer and scanning a copy of your ticket into your account. Then we’ll notify you of any winnings.
Their website has more details on the service. It all sounds to me complex and convoluted. I can’t understand why anyone would sign up for it. Especially how they handle prizes and cash withdrawals – as it it appears it is only then they check that you are who you say you are. I guess the lure of a big prize is a factor their business plan.
Lottosend is another player in the online lottery space. Their presence will continue to drive lottery shopper interest in online purchase. This is not good news for retail lottery outlets.
My message to newsagents is to be aware of this new competitor and because of this to focus on customer service, demonstrating the value of face to face service.
Lotterywest strategic plan shared with retailers
Continuing the model of excellent transparency with their retailer network, Lotterywest yesterday shared their latest Strategic Plan, which offers valuable insights and outlines their business plan.
I encourage newsagents outside of Western Australia to read the plan as it outlines how a state owned lottery operation can work for the community and other stakeholders in the network.
newsXpress encourages shop local for Powerball $100M
Here is a 9 second video provided to newsXpress members yesterday for promoting shop local for the Powerball $100M jackpot. The objective was to create something different to the usual lottery marketing and something that could be used across Australia.
Most marketing videos for social media are disposable. That is, you use them once or twice and never again. People want fresh and entertaining content. This is also why short videos work well.
I would be happy to detail here marketing collateral from other marketing groups for this Powerball jackpot.