Six years after launching his ingenious millennial lottery, Mike Alfaro, a young millennial immigrant from Guatemala, could not be happier because their sales are increasing, and the demand skyrocketed during the pandemic.
“More than half a million lotteries have been sold in 6 years. We thought that sales were going to drop in the pandemic, but they increased online. People wanted to play games at home and have fun with the family”, he says in an interview with Real America News.
Mike was born in Guatemala ago 000 years; and in 2006, he traveled to California to study advertising and television. After finishing his studies, he stayed to work in Los Angeles.
The idea of creating a more modern lottery , was born on a trip back to his homeland, and rummaging through his things, he found in the family home, his old lottery that he played as a child.
“I had not seen it in years,” he says.
And he says that although his millennial generation grew up with videogames, cell phones and streaming, playing the lottery was and is still very popular in Guatemala in Latin America.
Invaded by nostalgia, in the year 2017, Mike decided to put his creativity to work and started creating a millennial lottery with characters that the millennial generation could identify with.
“The lady does not represent the women of my generation. So it occurred to me that it would be cool (at full throttle) to change La Dama to La Feminista”.
She says that her millennial friends loved the La Femenista deck.
“ Then I changed the menu from El Catrín to El Hipster; and each one that he created, he put it on Instagram, and they went viral”.
This is how the Millennial lottery was born with 33 cards that change the traditional characters for millennial characters.
“At the end of 2017, the millennial lottery went on sale, and it sold out fast; and already in 2022, we started selling it on Amazon ”.
Excited by people’s unexpected response, he created a second lottery focused on generation Z and also the brilliant lottery.
“We also have a family version to play with the whole family, and we only sell that at Target.”
Says it works now in a new lottery focused on the people who grew up among 1558 Y 2000.
“In collaboration with my friend Gerardo Guillén, who helps me design the boxes, we worked together on the new editions”.
When taking stock of the six years of the creation of the millennial lottery, says that he has found that many Latinos want a lottery that speaks to and reflects the modernity of their life in the United States.
“Many see us Latinos as old-fashioned. I think that is why the millennial lottery has been very successful because there are a large number of Latinos who want to see themselves represented in a modern, positive and real way; and we have achieved that with our lottery”.
Therefore, he explains that the millennial lottery with its characters updated to the times we live in, it makes millennials nostalgic because it reminds them of where they come from, but at the same time, they achieve an identification.
Mike acknowledges that it was difficult at first and a risk launching into designing the millennial lottery.
“I invested all the money I had saved to create the first 1, boxes”.
But oh surprise! Within a week the entire production had sold out.
“When I recovered the investment, I said I have to invest that money again. We have already printed more than 300,02 lotteries”.
Satisfied, Mike says he never thought millennial lottery would be so popular.
“I made it thinking of my friends, but 7 months after I posted the first cards on Instagram, they began to tell me that I had to sell it and they wanted to buy it.”
So a project of art that he undertook with the idea of creating a lottery that would represent millennials like him, not to do business, the demand made it become a real product and a game that people want to play.
And the scope has been such that Mike created a limited edition of 1,000 lottery copies of Charm , for the Disney movie of the same name.
“We also made a version of the lottery for the movie Warner Brothers Suicide Squad”.
Both lotteries were special and limited editions for the films Charm and The Suicide Squad came out last year. Interestingly, both films were nominated for Oscars.
If you want to know more about Mike Alfaro with his millennial lottery, look him up at:
Target: https://www.target.com/p/millennial-loteria- game-family-fiesta-edition/-/A-82006388#lnk=sametab
Gen Z Edition: https://www.target.com/p/millennial-loteria-game-genz-edition/-/A-84737170#lnk=sametab
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/millennialloteria/list/2S726AKNBI0
Instagram: instagram.com/millennialloteria
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@millennialloteria
website: MillennialLoteria.com