About
FP1 is proud to have served as the media consultant for Winning for Missouri Education’s campaign to pass Amendment 2, which legalized sports betting in Missouri and will generate more than $100 million for schools over the next five years.
Problem
Funded by DraftKings and FanDuel, Winning for Missouri Education ran a $43 million campaign to make Missouri the 39th state to legalize sports betting. Caesars, a Nevada casino with gaming interests in Missouri, vigorously opposed Amendment 2 at the outset of the campaign and spent over $14 million to defeat it.
In ballot campaigns, it is always more difficult to win a YES vote. When presented with complicated ballot language, voters who are confused tend to vote NO. Missouri voters were also initially skeptical that legalizing sports betting would generate more money for schools. The NO campaign compared sports betting to the lottery, which had been sold as a panacea for Missouri’s education problems, but that had been raided by politicians for years to fund other spending priorities.
The fact that gaming companies like DraftKings and FanDuel are legally prohibited from featuring kids in their advertisements further complicated our challenges in Missouri. We needed to find a creative work around for selling the educational benefits of Amendment 2 without showing schoolchildren in our ads.
Solution
To beat these odds, we created an 11-spot television and digital ad progression that featured Hall of Fame athletes Ozzie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals and Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs. We ran ads featuring moms of schoolkids who talked about the educational benefits associated with legalizing sports betting. We also deployed two classroom teachers to add credibility to our central argument that Missouri’s Amendment 2 would generate more than $100 million for schools.
To show the bipartisan support that Amendment 2 had received, we ran a spot featuring Republican and Democratic leaders in the State Senate. In the 11th hour of the campaign, our field team in Missouri secured the endorsement of Donald Trump Jr. Our digital ads and Fox News TV spot featuring Don Jr. helped mitigate Republican voters’ concerns over gambling and proved important in winning the election.
To beat these odds, we created an 11-spot television and digital ad progression that featured Hall of Fame athletes Ozzie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals and Tony Gonzalez of the Kansas City Chiefs. We ran ads featuring moms of schoolkids who talked about the educational benefits associated with legalizing sports betting. We also deployed two classroom teachers to add credibility to our central argument that Missouri’s Amendment 2 would generate more than $100 million for schools.
To show the bipartisan support that Amendment 2 had received, we ran a spot featuring Republican and Democratic leaders in the State Senate. In the 11th hour of the campaign, our field team in Missouri secured the endorsement of Donald Trump Jr. Our digital ads and Fox News TV spot featuring Don Jr. helped mitigate Republican voters’ concerns over gambling and proved important in winning the election.
Results
On Election Day, Missouri’s Amendment 2 passed by fewer than 5,000 votes. No sports betting ballot campaign in America has won when significant money has been spent against it. The fact that Winning for Missouri Education overcame the $14 million that Caesars spent during the election to cast doubts about the educational benefits of sports betting is a strong testament to the effectiveness of our messaging and advertising campaign.
On Election Day, Missouri’s Amendment 2 passed by fewer than 5,000 votes. No sports betting ballot campaign in America has won when significant money has been spent against it. The fact that Winning for Missouri Education overcame the $14 million that Caesars spent during the election to cast doubts about the educational benefits of sports betting is a strong testament to the effectiveness of our messaging and advertising campaign.
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