Ahead of the fall Phoenix conference, La Fleur’s invited lotteries to submit their best ad spots and vote on the year’s standout creative. Four Fleurry winners emerged, based on the highest mean scores: Massachusetts Lottery’s Gingerbread Thieves (top overall), New Jersey Lottery’s Shaq Jersey (top third in marketing spend), South Carolina Education Lottery’s Carolina/Clemson Jackpot: The Regular (middle third), and Idaho Lottery’s Sorry Santa (bottom third).

Yet we’ve always wondered whether players would vote the same way as lottery insiders. So, we partnered with market research agency Element54, which was recently acquired by Leger, to conduct an in-depth analysis of every Fleurry ad.

We ended up conducting a two-phase study. For the first phase, we replicated the format most familiar to the lottery industry. A representative sample of 1,500 U.S. adults (18+) each viewed 4 of the 44 submitted ads, randomly assigned, and rated them on a 5-point scale from “1 – I hated it” to “5 – Love it!” Data was collected on September 24, 2025.

When split out by marketing spend, California ranked highest among lotteries in the top third (14th overall in the Fleurries), Texas led the middle third (17th), and Idaho once again topped the bottom third (7th).

However, even though Georgia’s ad finished 19th in our awards, it earned the highest average score of any lottery in the omnibus study. On a 5-point scale, it outscored second-place Texas by nearly half a point. To put that in perspective, the same gap between Georgia and Texas spans 35 lotteries in the rankings below Texas. When we broke the results out by age, region, ethnicity, and gender-by-age, Georgia’s ad ranked first in every segment except men ages 35–54.

Another fascinating finding from the omnibus study was that every top-performing ad in its category was a holiday ad. “What these winning ads do so well is create a theater of the mind. They don’t just show you a story, they pull you into it. Even when tested months before the holidays, people still connected emotionally, because the feeling was real. That’s the mark of timeless creative,” says Bernie Malinoff, Executive Vice-President, Leger-Element54.

Second Phase: The AI Moderator

The findings naturally raised new questions: What, exactly, resonated with players? Why was Georgia’s ad so beloved? Why did Texas rise to the top while Idaho continued to succeed?

To dig deeper into the “why,” Element54 helped us with a second phase. We analyzed the ads for Georgia, Texas, and Idaho. Using their platform, we conducted 65 AI-moderated, one-on-one interviews with participants across the U.S. Each respondent reviewed the top three player-selected ads (shown in randomized order) and answered a consistent set of qualitative questions. The AI platform then generated tailored follow-ups in real time, adapting to individual reactions. Below are some highlights from the AI moderator summaries.

  • Georgia’s holiday narrative and high-quality production drove significant positive emotions, lottery curiosity, and a clear uptick in players’ interest. The festive snowman-and-puppy storyline sparked joy and fondness in 57.8% of viewers, who praised its uplifting narrative and charming characters. One respondent stated, “I loved this ad, it was very entertaining and had a great story.” Simultaneously, 42.2% reported heightened curiosity about playing the lottery, drawn in by unique scenes that “grabbed attention” and left them wanting more. This seasonal context bolstered recall—34.4% specifically cited the snowman and dog as memorable anchors—while 29.7% highlighted the ad’s crisp visuals and production quality as key to its appeal.
  • The Idaho Lottery’s holiday spot delivered strong emotional and humorous engagement, standing out as highly memorable. Half of viewers felt genuinely moved by the festive narrative and characters, and 43% laughed at Santa’s antics, underscoring the ad’s ability to entertain and connect.
  • For Texas’ Falalalala Lots of Cash, nearly half (48.1%) of respondents reported positive emotional engagement, praising its exciting music and humor. The ad’s memorability shines through, with 35.4% giving it a top attention score, and an overall average of 8.0, thanks to vivid visuals and a catchy soundtrack. “The ad was memorable because of its upbeat music, colorful visuals, and the joyful reactions of the winners. It really captured excitement and hope,” explained a participant.

“What really stood out in the AI-moderated interviews was how viewers articulated their reactions in rich, emotional language. They spoke about feeling joy, nostalgia, and hope. And that tells us the ads connected at a deeper level. But it also highlighted an opportunity: originality and message clarity are what turn a feel-good moment into an actual behavioral nudge. That’s the next creative frontier,” says Juliann Ng, Executive Vice President, Strategy & Development, Leger-Element54.

“Lottery brands are mastering the art of emotional resonance, but what’s emerging now is a balance between storytelling and strategic simplicity. We’ve seen this when we recently conducted a meta analysis of 124 ads with 2,785,000 individual data points. It’s no surprise that consumers respond to narratives that feel human. Moments of humor, warmth, or connection are all important, yet they still need a clear reason to believe. The ads that perform best remind us that inspiration is most powerful when it’s easy to understand and easy to act on,” says Malinoff.

For the lottery industry, studies like this can help guide decisions about what truly resonates with players. It’s also a completely new way of moderating, just another example of how AI is reshaping how we work.

For La Fleur’s, what we found most fascinating was the gap between what the industry loves and what players love. Going forward, we may need to give out two Fleurry Awards each year: one chosen by the industry, and one chosen by players. It’ll be interesting to see which award will be the more coveted.