Dianne Thompson

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Camelot’s chief executive called for a new body to promote awareness of Lottery projects. Here is an edited version of her speech

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The enormous popularity of the Lottery means that to date we have been able to raise over £11.4bn for good causes, and a further £4.4bn for the Government in tax. Over 97,000 projects have been funded by Lottery grants. The National Lottery is – and continues to be – a great national success. If it is going to continue its winning streak it has to be a team effort involving all the Lottery partners: the operator, our retailers, the Lottery Commission, the Government, the distributing bodies –and of course all of you with a vision, however small or big, about how Lottery money can best be spent.

As part of the overall marketing strategy for the National Lottery, we have been looking closely at our own image. Sadly, because of the fat cat crisis in 1997 and the subsequent political rows, the Camelot brand came to the fore and at one stage eclipsed the National Lottery brand. What we have now is two very high-profile brands, strongly interlinked. Any bad press about one has an impact on the other. For this reason, a key part of our marketing strategy has been to work at and change the Camelot brand, moving away from those days of fat cats. This has involved turning the company inside out and re-evaluating everything we do. The end objective of the relaunch is to increase sales and money raised for the good causes. But if you’re expecting a major uplift in sales overnight, you’ll be disappointed. This isn’t about quick-fix solutions; it’s about long-term growth. We’re investing in creating a healthier brand, which in turn will lead to an increased level of sales which can be sustained way into the future. We’ve always said players play the Lottery because they want to win life-changing amounts of money. But once they’ve played, they also want to know how their money is being spent. As part of our ongoing commitment to social reporting, we carry out regular research amongst the public to find out their views on Lottery issues. Our third social report, due to be published next month, will show that the biggest criticism now about the National Lottery is around the distribution side. People are critical because they don’t know what’s happening to their money. There is widespread ignorance about how money is being spent and it’s getting worse. And the real problem is that people not knowing the facts doesn’t stop them having opinions. The opinions are based on perceptions rather than the reality.

Common criticisms were that people saw few benefits at a local level; they thought Lottery money was going to the ‘wrong’ causes, and to those who already have money. They believe that the distribution of money is unevenly spread across the UK, with London and the south-east being perceived to benefit the most, and finally that Lottery money is invested unwisely, particularly when it comes to local projects.

But the figure that amazes me the most is that 70% of people can’t name a local Lottery project. For those of you who have worked so hard at making sure Lottery money is well spent, these results must be disappointing and frustrating. As operator of the National Lottery, the distribution of Lottery funds is, in one sense, none of our business. But there again it is. Because it affects the Lottery as a whole – and in particular the health of the brand. When you have a maturing Lottery in a fiercely competitive market, the health of the brand is critical to its long-term success – and survival.

We have undertaken a number of initiatives to try to promote the distribution side of the Lottery – initially alone, but increasingly with the support of our Lottery partners. As part of our relaunch activities we have changed the branding of the National Lottery. By giving individual games their own separate identity, Lottery grants can be promoted more clearly and effectively using the parent National Lottery brand.

We also launched ‘The Nation’s Lottery’ campaign, which was developed in partnership with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the distributing bodies. ‘You played, the nation won’ was a £3.2m integrated campaign, featuring television advertising, point of sale and an intensive public relations campaign. The message was from the people who have benefited from funding directly to the people who play. But the real focus was at a local level. Every single one of our 30,000 retailers had specially tailored point of sale material which highlighted five local Lottery projects. The logistics – and expense – of such a tailored approach are considerable, but to us the local message was critical.

The campaign was a success – in as far as it went. The initial research findings show increased awareness about the fact that a proportion of Lottery money actually goes to good causes; that the Lottery changes Britain for the better; that it benefits ordinary people, and finally that individual local areas benefit from Lottery money. Positive feelings towards the Lottery also rose. Following the campaign more adults – 26% rather than the previous figure of 20% – also now agree that ‘knowing some of the money goes towards good causes has an impact on how I play the National Lottery’.

We are never going to transform public opinion by one-off activities. It is only by consistent and regular communications that a message will have real and lasting impact on the way people think.

What is needed, we think, is a longer-term and more coherent communications strategy based on a more sustainable level of marketing spend. We believe the time has come for the formation of a single body to promote better understanding of the benefits of the National Lottery to the nation. Such a body would need to have the full support and backing of all the Lottery partners, but would have the advantage of being guided by one goal: the promotion of the betterment of the nation through the National Lottery.

In addition I hope individual Lottery beneficiaries, particularly the larger ones, might start to do more to promote the source of their funding through their own marketing activity. Again, I think it is something we owe our Lottery players.