The sales and strategy team came to us for something genuinely ambitious — a fully gamified mobile ad experience that would teach audiences how to play Keno, right inside the unit itself. The catch: Keno involves choosing up to 10 numbers from a pool of 80, with 20 drawn at random. A lot of moving parts for a very small canvas.

The format decision was straightforward — a Hang Time unit, the best performing mobile format at the time and the natural home for this kind of interactive experience.

With no assets provided, imagery was sourced directly from the Ohio Lottery’s website. From there, the focus shifted to making the game actually playable without overwhelming the user. The prototype scaled Keno down to its essence: players select up to four spots from a condensed number pool, then trigger a randomizer to see if their numbers get drawn — a faithful taste of the real experience. Slightly advanced coding was required to ensure a fresh set of numbers generated on every ad refresh, keeping the game dynamic. No generative AI was used throughout.

We won new business without an RFP. The prototype wasn’t the final product — but it opened the door to building a more fully customized game experience for the client.