Over the next two weeks, strategy will be revealing the 2025 Marketers of the Year. Check back here every day for profiles on the brand leaders, starting with OLG’s Maxine Chapman below. This article was originally published in the Winter issue of Strategy Magazine.

For decades, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) has been a cornerstone of Ontario’s non-tax revenue, contributing more than $62 billion to the province since 1975. Yet, changes in the competitive landscape and customer expectations continue to challenge OLG’s relevance and reach with critical target audiences – particularly among the younger generation.

That’s something Maxine Chapman, OLG’s VP brand and marketing officer, has been working to change.

Chapman joined OLG in 2022, but spent most of her career – more than 14 years – with Coca-Cola, which included spearheading the CPG brand’s sponsorship at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing, Vancouver and London, England. She then helped lead Cineplex’s masterbrand refresh and award-winning “Lily and the Snowman” campaign, which logged more than 100 million views within 48 hours. And before joining OLG, Chapman was the head of global brand sponsorship and impact at Manulife, where she worked on the marketing strategy for its sustainability agenda.

At OLG, she is leading the effort to connect the Crown Corporation with a younger generation of lottery users (namely Gen Zers and millennials) and communicate its CSR-focused work, which is about supporting communities. Both play together since younger customers repeatedly come up in research as being CSR conscious. “To redefine our trajectory, we knew we needed to redefine the ‘win’ with OLG,” Chapman tells strategy. “Reinvesting in the province is what most people like about OLG, but they still don’t feel like they’re winning in the process.”

To help encourage game play among Gen Zers and millennials, Chapman and her team have been communicating both the social impact and personal benefits when it comes to playing its games. “While they look to make ethical purchases, losing is a real barrier to play,” Chapman says. “So, we intentionally shifted our positioning from ‘playing for others and hoping you win’ to ‘playing for a personal win and giving back while you’re at it.’ Our filter for any brand campaign is: how can our players see the ‘me’ in the ‘we’?”

Over the last few years, OLG has redefined its role to tell the story of its community-driven purpose while also driving growth of its products. The organization’s core consumers, particularly those under 35, have responded positively to OLG’s “Bring Home The Win” masterbrand platform, which aims to communicate that 100% of profits go back to Ontario communities.

“The launch strategy for this new platform was purposely built to lead with heart (emotion),” Chapman points out. “Then follow fast with head (rational).”

She says the organization has received consumer feedback that the campaign “makes me think of OLG as an organization that brings excitement and fun” and “helps me believe OLG gives back to Ontarians,” she says, adding that younger consumers are typically unaware of how OLG uses its profits to support local communities.

Chapman and her agency partners (which include FCB, BBDO, VML, The Hive, Balmoral, Behaviour, Mint and Momentum) have been weaving that dual purpose into creative campaigns that strike a chord with a younger audience. Take for instance “Winner! Gagnant!” – a 2023 campaign which took OLG’s win tone to the next level.

“We wanted to remind people who hear that win tone over 200 million times a year, that not only has a player won but so have communities in Ontario,” Chapman says.

So, working with Live Nation, OLG leveraged local EDM duo Loud Luxury and songwriter Preston Pablo to create a new, modern song. OLG then took the song “out of the corner store and on tour,” Chapman says, pointing to activations at the Boots and Hearts festival, concerts at the Budweiser Stage in Toronto and the Veld music festival, where Loud Luxury dropped their remix.

“For decades, Winner! Gagnant! has been synonymous with winning, and every time it’s played, it means that someone is celebrating, communities are benefitting and together, we are making people’s lives better across the province,” Chapman said at the time of its launch.

Last summer, OLG also leaned into the cultural relevance of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games with the help of athletes Andre de Grasse, Penny Oleksiak and Maggie Mac Neil. OLG’s “Sponsored by You” campaign – an extension of its “Quest for Gold” collaboration with the Ontario Government, which began in 2006 – reinforced that OLG proceeds support high performance amateur athletes by offsetting the costs of training and living expenses.

“Marketing and communications that are authentically true to OLG’s values will be vital in winning share of mind and share of wallet,” she says. “We create authentic winners’ content, share compelling stories showcasing a variety of wins, winning moments and the communities that win with each play.”

Chapman uses OLG’s 2024 Lotto Max “Thrift Drop” as another recent example of marketing that’s aimed at bringing the next generation into the fold. The campaign featured a collection of upcycled clothing, created in partnership with fashion designer Kevin Leonel, which included a lottery bonus that can be used to purchase Lotto Max tickets. A limited number of hoodies, jackets and shirts carry a code redeemable for one year’s worth of Lotto Max tickets on the OLG website – which also carry the chance to win a jackpot of up to $70 million.

“It was inspired by recent sustainable shopping trends and an increased demand from Gen Z for second-hand and vintage items,” Chapman says.

Each clothing item featured seven numbers from thrifted fabric, a nod to the Lotto Max lottery experience where players can select their own seven lottery numbers or choose the autogenerated “Quick Pick” option to create their lottery ticket. The result? The clothing line sold out in less than five weeks. And the proceeds from the collection – some $90,000 – were also donated to EcoEquitable, a registered charity based in Ottawa that is dedicated to reducing textile waste and empowering women through sewing skills development.

Chapman says that, through its Brand Health and Equity tracker, OLG is seeing strong gains among its target audience and core consumers as a result of its campaigns and new positioning. The organization’s relevance, favourability and consideration significantly outperformed its benchmark and are the “highest OLG has tracked,” Chapman notes.

OLG also saw a significant increase in purchase intent among the under-35 demo and the “Sponsored by You” campaign scored in the top 10% for impact. Nielson attributes OLG’s masterbrand marketing for delivering at a 6x return on investment, Chapman adds. While Chapman is being recognized as a Marketer of the Year, she stresses that the success OLG is experiencing is due to her agency partners and team.

As inspiration for continuing OLG’s purpose-driven work, Chapman cites the book Start With Why, by Simon Sinek: “Your why is what will define you,” she says. “I think that’s why I fell in love with masterbrand work – because it defines, then amplifies, your why. That’s your recipe for success.”