National Lottery backs new £2 Lotto game with £15m push







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National Lottery backs new £2 Lotto game with £50m push

30/09/2013

John Reynolds

Camelot aims to revive flagging Lotto sales ahead of start of new game on 5 October with biggest campaign since 1994 launch

National Lottery operator Camelot is launching a £15m marketing campaign, the biggest since its 1994 launch, to tie in with significant changes to the Lotto game including a doubling of the price of a ticket to £2.

The campaign runs with the theme of "a new dawn" and kicks off with a teaser TV advert that begins on Thursday ahead of the launch of the new-look Lotto game on 5 October.

Camelot's TV ad, created by Abbott Vickers BBDO, features 300 people singing a re-worded version of Glibert O'Sulivan's Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day while going about their daily business.

It will introduce the new strapline "Game changing. Life changing", in an effort to show that winning can prove life-changing and how playing the game helps good causes.

The radio, outdoor, digital and print ads will carry more bespoke messages of the campaign.

Digital elements of the campaign will feature a YouTube singalong competition in which people can upload videos of themselves reciting the new Lotto song with the winner receiving £20,000.

Sally Cowdry, Camelot's consumer and marketing director, said: "The launch of new Lotto is the culmination of an incredible amount of work across the company over more than two years. And the new campaign we've unveiled today is also epic in its scale and ambition – this is the biggest thing we've done since the National Lottery launched in 1994 and is a truly innovative, exciting and ground-breaking campaign for us.

"We want to reach every corner of the nation, every Lotto player across the UK – and even the small number of adults out there who've never played. We want everyone to sing our song and understand the great prizes new Lotto has to offer."

The changes to the game include the overall prize fund more than doubling, with the average Saturday jackpot rising from £3.9m to £5m and the prize for three numbers increasing from £10 to £25.

There will also be a raffle every week, in which at least 50 winners will receive £20,000 each.

The new-look game will launch with two special "event" draws on its first two Saturdays, where Lotto jackpots of £10m will be on offer and 1,000 raffle prizes of £20,000 will be guaranteed in each draw. Along with increased jackpot for the first two Saturdays this amounts to close a £50 million pound boost.

Chris Evans will host the Saturday night prize draw for the first three months.

Camelot is making the change as it looks to reverse flagging sales of the game, although it did receive a fillip last year from the Olympics. It also believes the new-look game will mean that players will have more ways to win more money.

If the Lotto jackpot rolls, the next draw will see 100 guaranteed winners of £20,000. A Double Rollover will create 150 guaranteed winners of £20,000, while a Triple Rollover generates 200 winners, and a Quadruple Rollover means 250 winners of £20,000.