Arizona Adventure: an animated red-rock canyon under a blue sky, a tiny climber on the rock face

Arizona Lottery committed to play that means something. With scratchers built as literal tickets to explore, set to Johnny Cash.

Adventure and Holiday. Two campaigns told through animated film and the scratcher tickets themselves.

Arizona Lottery wanted to re-ignite the spirit of play for a younger audience that craves meaning in every experience. Scratchers had lost their spark: quick, transactional, easy to forget.

Two campaigns answered: Arizona Adventure, and a holiday music video set to Lil Jon.

The spark

Scratchers had lost their spark. The state never did.

The brief wasn’t just about selling tickets; it was about re-anchoring the brand in what makes Arizona extraordinary. The landscapes. The mystery. The thrill of discovery waiting just beyond the horizon.

When you live in a state built for exploration, every ticket should feel like a story waiting to unfold.

Four painted background frames of Arizona canyon country

The ticket

Literal tickets to explore, the way you’d buy admission to a concert, a park, or a plane ride.

Each scratcher became a cinematic invitation to escape routine and rediscover the state through play, soundtracked by Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere, Man”: travel, grit, Americana.

The animated Arizona was built for real: painted background plates, layered parallax, 3D geometry under projection plates, characters studied from every angle before a frame moved.

Arizona Adventure: the scratcher ticket lineup laid out with trail gear

Arizona Adventure mid-build: an untextured grey runner jogging down a painted aspen trail toward red cliffs

Split frame: wireframe 3D geometry of a desert butte against its painted projection plate

Layered parallax plates of a canyon scene, fanned out in depth

Character turnaround: line study from four angles

Character turnaround: climber with helmet and harness, three angles

The encore

All I Want for Christmas… Is a Scratcher.

For the holidays, the tickets became the talent: a holiday-themed music video that brings the scratchers to life, grooving to Lil Jon’s “All I Want for Christmas”. The tickets became the perfect gift for everyone on your list.

The Perfect Gift: holiday scratchers tumbling between neon saguaros and glass ornaments

The sell-out

Sold out before the promotion ended. A first.

Arizona Adventure broke records: the first Arizona Lottery scratcher ever to sell out before its promotion ended, and the top-performing $5 ticket. The campaign took Gold at the Graphis Advertising Awards 2024.

Sold outbefore the promotion ended · a first

top-performing $5 ticket · Graphis Gold 2024

Billboard: “The best gift under any tree. Top prizes up to $500,000.”

Magazine page: “The best gift under any tree”

Magazine page: “A stuffer for every stocking”

Credits

O.H. Partners

A cheetah in a leather jacket drives a convertible through the desert, hands an officer his driver’s license, then sits at a judge’s bench

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