I has been reported by Washington Lottery director Bill Hanson that the agency has bought a Mercedes Sprinter van worth $49,000.  So, what do you think about that?  An expensive and rather useless marketing tool ?  Some people think it is.  However according to Hanson this acquisition was made in order to boost Lottery ticket sales at the Pyuallup Fair and other big festivals.  It is considered a marketing stunt, actually. US lottery

Hanson said Friday the agency bought a $49,000 Mercedes Sprinter van as a marketing tool to boost Lottery ticket sales at the Puyallup Fair and other big festivals where it sets up for marketing.  And it is an idea that the agency has considered for some time in order to raise sales. Lottery results

The agency recently advertised for proposals to decorate the van and with blazing Lotto logos, making it into the “Lotto-mobile.” Bids are due Oct. 13 and the special features that need to be taken into consideration are items like  awnings, LCD television, “jackpot” sign, refrigerator, air conditioning and wiring to support Lottery terminals that are to print and dispense tickets.

Making this purchase actually has the intention of setting lotto-mobile up  at events so that the agency employees can explain how the Lottery games work and be able to push up the sales. Currently the agency already appears at festivals with pup-up tent and a trailer, but the van would actually double the number of events they can attend.

“A lot of lotteries have this. They call them lotto-mobiles or lucky vans,” Hanson said. “Almost every weekend there are events out there. We figure with 50 new events with the ‘Lotto-mobile’ and we make $2,000 in sales (at each stop), we could pay this off fast.”

The most amazing remark, however, or maybe a fact that neither you or me or anybody that buys lottery would have ever expected to hear is that according to Hanson, people do not know how to play lottery.  Apparently, according to  the agency´s surveys people don´t buy scratch tickets or tickets for drawings for one simple reason, they are not sure how it works. National lottery

According to the 2010 annual report, DC Lottery sold $491 million worth of tickets last year, up slightly from 2009 but still down by 5.8 percent from  2008 fiscal year. We will see if this purchase was actually worth it in terms of pushing the revenue up a notch.