Lotteries have an intimate understanding of just how quickly social media posts can turn sour. Even a benign post sharing the good news about a big win can trigger a cascade of negativity. The most positive creative content can become a prompt for cynicism instead of engagement. Still, social media’s tremendous potential for exposure and positive messaging begs for a better way to head off that negativity from the very beginning.

That’s where Alchemy3’s partnership with the social media influencer strategists at PopShorts comes in. The PopShorts team has more than 12 years of experience building winning social media content with lotteries, giving them a deep understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges found within the industry. The partnership has fostered new and exciting insights that have resulted in the discovery that the type of prize featured can dramatically affect the tone of the conversation when paired with authentic social content. Their recent joint influencer collaboration with Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC) delivered an almost entirely positive response from players and non-players alike.

The First Big Test

Results from Alchemy3 and PopShorts’ first major collaboration with the WCLC’s Ride to Riches, a Polaris-themed Scratch & Win ticket, support the theory that a focus on unique, non-cash prizes can deliver substantially more positive feedback. The social influencer campaign launched around the game delivered 1,462,586 paid impressions, +32% above target, plus 53,840 added-value organic impressions. It generated 319,240 paid post engagements for a 21.8% engagement rate. Most notable to lottery marketers was the overwhelming positivity of consumer comments: 97% positive, 2% neutral, and only 1% negative.

“Positivity scores were much higher than lotteries would typically receive,” says Adam Gausepohl, Head of Strategy and Creative at PopShorts. “The Polaris vehicles featured on the tickets opened the door for us to collaborate with local creators in entirely new ways. And importantly, because the prizes themselves went beyond cash, we were able to frame the campaign more firmly around lifestyle, adventure, and aspiration. To facilitate this, we partnered with a diverse mix of creators from different backgrounds, giving each the flexibility to express those ideas authentically through their own lens.”

On Instagram, for instance, Calgary-based influencer Sarah Hovind posed for photos alongside a Polaris Slingshot helmet and the WCLC’s Ride to Riches tickets, asking her audience which Polaris vehicle they would choose. Her paid results included 502,210 impressions and 78,330 paid post engagements, along with added value organic views.

Former Canadian Olympian Brady Leman leaned into authenticity. He filmed himself pedaling uphill while talking to the camera, audibly out of breath, while imagining a Polaris RZR XP as a shuttle vehicle to turn more time into downhill riding. The reel delivered 569,670 paid impressions and 193,526 paid post engagements, the highest among the creators featured in the campaign.

In another execution, Winnipeg-based Madison Barker adapted a get-ready-with-me format familiar to her equestrian followers. She swapped her usual horseback gear for a Polaris helmet and showed the new Scratch & Win tickets, explaining that players could ride off in one of four new vehicles or win up to $200,000.

WCLC played an integral role in selecting influencers who aligned with their player base and could authentically communicate the ticket’s value propositions. Teela Lynn, Brand Manager for WCLC Scratch & Win, worked closely with the Alchemy3 and PopShorts teams to bring the campaign to life, stating, “We were very satisfied with the caliber of influencers the team presented, their expertise, and the final results.”

Rev’d Up and Ready to Go

The data supports the idea that unique lottery prizes have a powerful, positive influence on social conversations. When creators showcase tangible rewards, both players and non-players respond with significantly more positivity.

“The partnership has been great, and we’re so happy we leaned into this theory with the PopShorts and WCLC teams,” says Merrill Fullerton, Account Advisor with Alchemy3. “In this case, it was in support of a Polaris program, but we’re confident lotteries can feature virtually any of our other brands and will see similar results. We can really use this to great effect for our customers when paired with our properties and experiential second-chance trips.”

With the positive sentiment results and seamless collaboration, the WCLC team would gladly partner with Alchemy3 and PopShorts again. “We’re already looking for opportunities to collaborate on future tickets! The old adage ‘many hands make light work’ truly rang true in this case,” says Lynn.

For lottery executives, the lesson is simple and testable. Let credible creators demonstrate how tangible prizes impact them, and then measure the changes in reach, tone, and engagement. The WCLC activation described above provides the first data point, and it’s overwhelmingly positive. That merits thorough consideration from any lottery marketing executive who wants to measurably improve the tone of the conversation within their social following. The best part is that with costs bundled into Alchemy3’s programs, lotteries won’t have to dig deep into their wallets to realize the benefits.

WCLC’s success in this collaboration was the first statement piece of a dynamic partnership between Alchemy3 and PopShorts, but it’s far from the last. The two organizations are already working on several activations, headlined by a secret Texas Lottery program scheduled for 2026.

The Solution to Social

Alchemy3 and PopShorts now offer lottery customers cutting-edge social influencer expertise as part of a larger turnkey package of services for branded games and promotions.

PopShorts boasts a proven track record of success with Kentucky and Virginia Lotteries. “At PopShorts, our focus has always been on creating content that feels native to social; entertaining, authentic, and seamlessly integrated into people’s feeds. Rather than traditional ads, our creators develop stories and moments that incorporate the Lottery’s products or promotions in ways that genuinely resonate with their audiences. We’ve A/B tested our influencer content against more conventional creative from lotteries, and time and again, we see our approach outperforms because users enjoy seeing our content in their feeds versus ads, which they view as an interruption,” says Gausepohl.

Despite the growing body of evidence supporting its use, funding for influencer programs can still be challenging for many state and provincial lotteries, but creative solutions are finding a foothold.

“Lotteries need to earmark hard-to-secure marketing dollars to include influencer programs, so we created the means to roll it into our games or promotions packages, so they don’t need to undertake an exhaustive search for those funds. Through our partnership with PopShorts, lotteries can access award-winning social influencer expertise to responsibly promote their products under the existing umbrella of an A3 program,” says Fullerton.

In addition to expert content creation, PopShorts programs include the ability to geo-target campaigns with paid social amplification of creators’ posts, along with the measurement tools needed to evaluate these programs and confirm campaign ROI.Typical reporting covers everything you would expect, including organic and paid impressions, video view stats, and engagement metrics. Creative diagnostics can also signal what is resonating with audiences, while unique social insights, such as emoji and comment analysis, can evaluate social sentiment and identify comment themes.