Many lotteries organize and maintain their own consumer panels to conduct primary research. Now, a hybrid agile research model delivers the same benefits without the significant challenges and costs of managing such panels in-house. At the recent NASPL PDS conference, IGT’s Audrey Pate discussed the uses and advantages of this new model.
By IGT (International Game Technology)
Published August 20, 2024
The case for accessing a fast, cost-effective way to conduct primary research was immediately apparent to the Global Marketing Insights team at IGT, which manages a full slate of research annually. In 2023 alone, the group fielded 420 research studies involving more than 300,000 players, potential players, and retailers in 662 markets around the globe.
Given that the traditional process of fielding a study involves six to eight weeks at minimum – and often longer, depending on its nature and scope – the IGT team saw the value of investing in a speedier, turnkey approach to conducting various types of research on behalf of the company and its customers.
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Following a period of exploration and testing at the end of 2023, IGT worked with one of its research partners, YouGov, to adopt YouGov’s agile research platform at the start of this year. The YouGov Self-Serve platform harnesses a proprietary panel of more than six million U.S. adults who are willing to respond to a survey within 24 hours of receipt. A playership and participation incidence check confirmed that the panel’s composition is closely representative of U.S. lottery players and potential players regarding frequency and recency of playing lottery games.
This licensed platform offers the means for IGT researchers to customize and conduct a variety of primary research studies cost-effectively and in a very short time frame, without the burden of maintaining the panel or the technology platform.
“I look at it as another tool in our toolbox, says Audrey Pate, Senior Manager, IGT Global Lottery Insights, who shared details about the agile model with attendees at NASPL’s recent PDS conference in Omaha, Nebraska. “The use of these types of third-party panels is gaining traction with companies across industries. It gives us and other organizations the ability to do studies at a moment’s notice and enhance our market-based insights. If a lottery product manager wants some data in relation to a product, for example, we can now get that overnight from American adults. It also lends itself well to tracking topics: The lower cost of accessing the program [versus fielding a traditional study] and the ability to program it ourselves means we can do trending and tracking over time cost effectively as well.”
Another advantage is control: “If we deem it appropriate to do a study on this platform, we ourselves program it,” she notes. “We can control the timeline, the questions we want to ask, and how often we want to ask them.”
At NASPL PDS, Pate outlined the criteria that need to be considered when deciding between a traditional research approach and the agile platform. She also offered some examples of IGT’s engagement with agile. “We’ve done 12 studies to date between lottery and iLottery,” she says. “One of the first studies we did was on market baskets, comparing those who buy lottery at a convenience store versus those who don’t.” Another agile study by IGT focused on the “buy online, pickup at store” and home delivery phenomena and their applicability to lottery games.
“IGT invests in research with players, potential players, and retailers because we want to understand and represent their perspective in the products and services we offer,” says Pate. “There is obviously still a place for traditional research, based on the programming needs, the stimulus, consistency with a vendor, and other considerations. However, the agile platform offers fairly robust programming, and the results of this approach are very much on par with traditional methods.”
Evolving Research & Insights
Just as consumer trends change and evolve, so do research methodologies. IGT has stayed at the forefront in adapting its approach and matching the goals of the research to the best newly available methodologies.
Observes Gerard Caro, IGT Senior Director Global Marketing Insights: “In recent years, we have moved to fewer in-person focus groups and more online. We’ve shared with the industry our increasing use of vox pops and mobile video testimonials, which can capture in-the-moment impressions and reactions through the players’ lens. This methodology also enables greater geographical reach and variety of interviewees. It has yielded some uniquely rich insights that weren’t possible with previous methodologies.”
The realm of AI has its unique uses in research as well: “We now include AI techniques for survey development and to analyze and aggregate open-ended verbatims into meaningful insights,” Caro says. “These advances in IGT research will help us and our customers to stay ahead of the curve on consumer behaviors and sentiments that impact lottery. We’re thinking differently and revolutionizing how we approach research to yield deeper and uniquely rich insights.”
To learn more, click here to access the recent presentation at NASPL PDS.
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