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娜塔丽·拉乔：博彩业游戏融合是趋势

Ingenious!

Q&A with Nathalie Rajotte, Director General of Loto- Québec subsidiary Ingenio

Now in its 16th year, Ingenio was created by Loto-Québec with the mission to build a bridge between multimedia entertainment and games of chance. Its first lottery product was an innovative CD-ROM based interactive game combined with an instant ticket sold at retail. Versions of these games were sold by lotteries in American, European and Canadian jurisdictions. From that beginning, Ingenio has become a source of innovation for entertaining games and experiences for lotteries and casinos alike. The company is currently engaged in finding ways to bridge the bricks-and-mortar world with the online and mobile worlds to provide today’s consumers the entertainment they are looking for. Insights asked for a few thoughts from Ingenio’s Director General Nathalie Rajotte.

How has the industry changed compared to what you expected when you launched in 1998?

I think that in the very early stage of multimedia, Loto- Québec had a strong belief that the future would be the evolution of new media technology. But we didn’t know at the time how amazingly fast this would evolve towards mobile, although really all the technologies have converged. We just felt that entertainment and new media were kind of the path of the future for our industry.

In the early stages we approached each gaming sector as completely separate, but along with the convergence of technologies, convergence of different forms of gaming is also taking place. Everything is overlapping – multimedia entertainment, gaming and gambling. We didn’t know at that time that we would get into such a very tight ecosystem. It’s no longer the gambling industry – it’s the gaming and entertainment industry. It’s a very, very inclusive ecosystem.

What does the convergence of lottery, gaming and entertainment mean for the lottery industry?

I think that the biggest challenge in the lottery and the greater gambling industry is that because of the convergence, we are facing market share losses from new types of competition. We are no longer monopolies in this broader market perspective. Discretionary income for the next generation of players is less than that of baby boomers, so they have less money to spend on entertainment. To them, entertainment is restaurants, shows, video games and maybe, just maybe, lottery/casino/bingo (for a smaller percentage). So our competition is not only other forms of gaming/gambling, it’s also everything that relates to entertainment, including the monetization of casual games.

The fact is, private competition has a tremendous variety of offerings to which the future generations of our consumers are exposed. And if we don’t address the evolution of a more entertaining product, our offer is soon going to be obsolete. In some cases, that private competition from the entertainment industry and their schemes comes without scrutiny by press or population, which is very different from our perspective. I shouldn’t say it’s an unfair battle, but it’s not necessarily equal positions in terms of competitiveness. So it’s going to be a very, very challenging future for our industry.

What do consumers want these days and what should lotteries do in response?

More and more, consumers want a story-telling experience, and in this social media era, they become your marketing voice. If you announce a product that they are interested in, especially a game in which they can be at the center of an immersive experience, they are the one who will carry the noise about it. It really is a shift in terms of vision. Instead of having a marketing agency pushing a proposition to your customers, you put in place the platforms for getting closer to and interacting with your customers.

That’s what we experience with the Zone in one of our casinos, which combines the excitement of showmanship, multimedia and games of chance with a series of multi-game terminals set up with projections on giant screens. This “casino within a casino” provides an immersive environment that can be adapted to customer mood, and there is a strong social or community aspect to the experience.

Social media, which everyone relies upon today, is just one part of “social.” Social is also human to human. It’s about intensity, it’s about feeling unique and having a personalized experience as well as a sense of belonging. It’s also having a sense of good value for your money.

So “social media” is not limited to the virtual world – consumers value social experiences in bricks-and-mortar locations. It’s pretty easy to build the bridge between the physical and virtual worlds in a casino, where you have an environment in which you can develop a great experience for the consumer. That bridge is going to be just as important in the lottery industry, but harder to achieve. One area that is most promising involves lottery products sold in environments where you can develop a more immersive experience.

So as we worked our vision of the casino of the future for the casinos in Québec, now we are working on the retail future for the lottery. Again, it is about the experience. We tend to think that the way of the future in the lottery industry is just to go virtual. But that’s not the only arena – it’s how you enhance the experience, making it entertainment, whether it connects with a TV show, points of sale in the physical world or online. Lotteries’ bread and butter will always come from retail points of contact, but there is the human need for social interaction in that space which we can further develop.

How do behavior patterns of new generations impact what we do?

Our challenge is not a technological one. Rather, our challenge is to really understand the underlying sentiment about human behavior. Many of us are not the generation who were born with smart phones in hand. New generations are raised in a totally different environment, with different expectations and a different way of consuming. Consumers today want to try everything and they are very savvy about new experiences. They are also more educated because they are more connected. So their own purchase behavior and the way they proceed to a purchase is very different. Every time they are interested in consuming something, the first thing they will do is click in the virtual world and see if there is anyone having a comment about this or that experience before they consume it. So actually, it makes a big difference how we as a product provider shall interact with them.

Consumers today also expect a global experience. We are in a very geopolitical industry, and increasingly the consumer doesn’t understand why they can’t consume a global lottery product. They are not as acquainted with boundaries as we were. So I think these are big challenges for our industry.

What can lotteries do to adapt to this new generation?

I’d say there are maybe three important things. The first is to put energy into understanding and designing unique experiences for the next generation. That’s fundamental research that we are doing here now at Ingenio. Next is to translate that into real products, which includes everything from new types of games to immersive experiences, using all the multimedia tools that we have available to us. And finally, we need to reach out to others. Ingenio is not the only creative entity at Loto-Québec – creativity is spread all over the company’s 6,000 employees. We need to channel this creative energy to keep on being innovative. And we can’t do it all by ourselves. We need to develop new types of partnerships in the entertainment industry. By opening ourselves to new partners, there can be a good balance between the energy we put in understanding the phenomenon of the evolution of the market, and creating new types of products and experiences.

How should lotteries use the interactive space if they can’t sell tickets online?

It is very important to just be in that space. The lines are blurred between promotional games, lottery games and monetization of social games. Most of the entertainment products out there for the next generation of consumers are in fact free. I totally believe in offering free play, as long as it is a good entertainment experience for your customer, because you are exposing them to your brand while they are still developing their consumer habits in the 18 to 25 age range. If they are engaged in your brand, they will probably be more inclined to look at what you are doing down the road. So it’s a long term investment, and you need to invest in what will provide the most unique storytelling experience to your customers.

Ingenio not only creates games but honors innovations by others, including your Interactive Multimedia Entertainment Award. Tell us about that.

Since its creation, Ingenio has supported various organizations whose common theme is to help individuals or startup companies who distinguish themselves with their ingenuity and creativity. It is important for us to get involved in our community and ensure continuity in the field of multimedia entertainment and other relevant areas. For example, Ingenio has helped numerous university students by giving scholarships and awards in fields such as multimedia, computer science and management of creativity. Over the past 14 years, we partnered with the Québec Entrepreneurship Contest to award a $5,000 prize to an innovative or new business operating in the interactive multimedia entertainment field. This year’s recipient is Decode Global Studio, a Montréal-based company that specializes in mobile games to teach kids about global issues in fun ways. This young company won the hearts of the selection panel because it focuses on social responsibility and has solid expertise in the mobile game sector. Several of our former prize recipients are making their mark as individual or company. For example, CREO, which won the award in 2003, achieves success in developing and distributing innovative, multiplatform science popularization products to help its partners enhance their educational, communications and marketing activities.

With all your emphasis on innovations, what is Ingenio’s next big thing?

Ingenio’s agenda is intrinsically linked to the strategic plan of Loto-Québec, a lottery operating all forms of games. Once this large playground is combined with new technologies, you find endless opportunities. Several relevant indications on our upcoming projects were already addressed in my earlier answers. Let’s say that we have developed an expertise in the casino area in creating closer ties with the client base and that we are currently attempting to work at a wider scale by linking entertainment, social aspects, new technology and gaming. So there will be more to come!