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The
Playwin buzz is catching on.
The
Essel group promoted online lottery fever is spreading through
Mumbai city, if the success of its print campaign in today's
newspapers is any indication. Eveninger Mid Day,
which carried coupons allowing free tickets, had two extra
print runs to cater to the overwhelming demand, according
to local vendors.
The
"trial-inducing sampling" as Playwin Infrawest
CEO Sanjay Das terms it, has obviously clicked. Similar
coupons were printed in most dailies in the country today,
including The Times of India, all Marathi, Tamil,
Bengali, Hindi newspapers (in Punjab and Haryana). The ploy
to ensure that the new concept catches on is working - the
number of Playwin tickets sold is anywhere between 600,000
and 1 million daily, says Das. While Das says that all segments
of society have been lured by Playwin's novel concept of
live, credible and transparent lottery, industry sources
say it is in the 'not-so-premium' areas that ticket sales
have really sky-rocketed.
Needless
to say, the lottery is ensuring viewership for sister channel
Zee TV as well. Zee's new show celebrity talk show Jeena
Isi Ka Naam Hai, which has been receiving good reviews,
has an added attraction in that the weekly Super Lotto results
are aired on the show.
Das says that while only 30 to 37 persons got five of the
six numbers right during the live draws, ensuring prize
money of upto Rs 20 million; a total of Rs 50 million will
be given away this Thursday. The money will be divided among
the number of five digit number winners equally, thus giving
an impetus to lottery buyers to gamble even more.
Word
of mouth publicity, banners at strategic places in metros
and extensive advertising across the Zee network are all
part of the multi- media strategy that has been put into
place to promote Playwin. According to reports, the company
has invested nearly Rs 3000 million on machines manufactured
by International Lottery and Totalizator Systems of the
US and has a nearly Rs 350 million ad budget.
But
it seems a small price to pay. Accounting major PriceWaterhouse
Coopers estimates that the turnover of Indian online lottery
will be nearly Rs 200 billion at the end of the first year
and Rs 1,000 billion by the end of the fifth. Zee, it seems,
has truely hit its jackpot.
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