Wednesday’s Powerball drawing was worth $768 million and one lucky Wisconsin is holding the golden ticket. It’s the third-largest jackpot in the history of the lottery. So, how does the Powerball get so high and why do so many people play? That’s easy…advertising, big prize pools, and some fun.
Selling The Dream
From television and billboards, to stickers on convenience store windows, lottery advertising is everywhere. But, the biggest marketing advantage the lottery has is the jackpot. The bigger it is, the better. High prize pools typically see an increase in casual and new players joining the fray. Essentially, a prize is so big it becomes too good to pass on. The bigger that number gets, the bigger the dream becomes.
Most would be able to pay off their parents’ mortgage, set their families and descendants up for multiple generations, assist local charities and world wide efforts, live a life of complete luxury, and still have a few hundred million leftover to do whatever they want. And, with just few bucks, it could be yours.
Against The Odds
At least that’s what lottery runners want people to believe. The truth is, the odds of winning the Powerball is 1 in 292 million. And, while the odds may never be in anyone’s favor, eventually someone wins. Everyone has heard that you’re more likely to be attacked by a shark or struck by lighting than winning the lottery.
Has anyone broken down the numbers? There is a 1 in 11,500,000 chance you’ll be attacked by a shark and a 1 in 14,600 chance you’ll be struck by lightning. Obviously there’s a little bit more too the calculation than this, but for rough numbers sake, a person is just as likely to win the Powerball as being attacked by sharks 25 times or struck by lightning 200,000 times.
Following The Money
While it’s not the kind of money that can change the world, it’s still a nice chunk of change. So, how much is $768 million? The last Super Bowl featured about 86 commercials, and advertisers paid $5 million per 30 second ad. With $768 million, one could purchase every single spot in the Super Bowl and still have over $330 million. The price of a full-page ad in the New York Times varies, but a general starting point is $150,000. If the winner wanted, they could run a full-page ad in the New York Times everyday for the next 14 years.
However, $768 million doesn’t really compare to some ad budgets. For instance, the payout is about half of the United States Federal Government’s yearly advertising budget, but doesn’t even scratch the top 20 companies who spend the most on advertising. To make it simple, it’s about 0.02% of the United States 2020 fiscal budget. The winner of the $768 million jackpot could run the United States for about 90 minutes.
Money Isn’t Everything
Lottery officials noticed more players bought tickets when the prize was bigger. We’re not talking a million dollar prize equalling a million tickets sold. But, a higher-frequency of tickets are sold when the prize reaches record breaking jackpots. In order to increase ticket sales, the lottery basically lowered the odds of winning to ensure higher prize pools, leading to prizes like last year’s Mega Millions $1.6 billion prize. Almost everyone we know played, and we’re willing to bet you did, too.
That said, a recent study showed 40% of players prefer lottery games that are fun instead of cash based. 62% of 18-24 years olds said they also enjoyed playing games with non-cash payouts. Combine that with the fact that one in four people don’t expect to win, it’s clear that the entertainment value of a lottery plays a bigger part in its overall success than anticipated. So, if you’re running a giveaway or sweepstakes, don’t just focus on the prize. Make it fun and exciting to play. What we mean by that is losing should still be enjoyable. Of course, everyone wants to win. But, if the process of playing is an experience in itself, you’ll be sure to keep people coming back for more.