In August 2016, in a first of its kind interactive advertisement, the New York Lottery launched the popular game of Tic-tac-toe throughout New York City subway stations, leveraging the MTA On the Go (OTG) digital touch-screens located on platforms inside stations. For the first time, customers could play with each other digitally across stations, or versus a computer, in real-time. Through the innovative use of technology, waiting for the train turned into an activity that connected commuters across New York City while underground.

Due to the kiosks’ Local Area Network capabilities, Tic-tac-toe was able to run on 118 OTG kiosks simultaneously, throughout 25 stations in New York City for two weeks. Players were able to battle other players or a computer, in real-time, in the same or different station. On the front-end, players interacted with the kiosks’ interface to place their X or O, while the back-end seamlessly matched live players up between stations, passed game information between kiosks, and kept track of which station was winning with a leaderboard.

The New York Lottery campaign was a record-setting interactive advertisement for the On the Go kiosks in the MTA network. Over a two week period, 74,918,354 impressions were delivered from the kiosks. Riders played Tic-tac-toe more than 90,000 times, with 67,294 Rider vs. Rider interactions, and 23,186 Computer Selected Opponent interactions. Additionally, 49,646 people opted in to Play Again after their first go. This was the first interactive ad campaign, at this scale, for the MTA New York City transit network, and a newly developed interaction on the OTG kiosks for customers riding the subway.