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Camelot relaunches the Lottery
Amid the razzmatazz the Lottery operator is putting effort and cash into promoting links with the good causes. Jane Taylor reports
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Camelot has begun a massive campaign to reverse the trend of declining ticket sales and revive the National Lottery. The operator will formally relaunch the Lottery under its new name ‘Lotto’ on 18 May, and will spend £72m in the coming year on marketing and promotion. Every aspect of the Lottery – games, terminals, the TV show, logo,
catchline, even the entry coupon – is being revamped.
One change of emphasis has already had a public airing: a much closer connection between the National Lottery game and funding for good causes. A television ad has been playing throughout April, alongside regional press coverage, a nationwide Camelot promotional tour, certificates for every retailer in the country showing how much they have raised for good causes, and locally specific posters for newsagents’ display, highlighting Lottery-funded projects nearby.
At the launch of the Lottery revamp, Michael Grade, Chairman of Camelot, devoted his introductory remarks largely to the relationship between the Lottery and good causes. ‘We’ve found,’ he said,
‘that 75% of the public cannot name a single locally funded project. When you consider that to date £11.3bn has been spent on 97,000 projects, you realise that that 75% figure is really not acceptable.’ Grade went on to comment about the need for a more prominent, single identity for projects: ‘It would help our sales effort if all projects were branded in
situ, as “made possible by a grant from the National Lottery”. The current message is too diverse and is not getting through.’ The figure of 75% comes from public opinion research commissioned by Camelot during March. The company has spent £3.2m on its recent effort to make a closer connection between the Lottery and good causes. It is spending this money not because greater public awareness of Lottery-funded projects increases ticket sales, but because as Sue
Slipman, director of external affairs, put it, ‘it enhances our reputation’. The new spirit of mutual advantage has also led Camelot to test a local publicity initiative based on three-way cooperation between itself, the distributors and retailers. A pilot PR scheme, involving Spar and Awards for All in Scotland, will be rolled out in towns across Scotland. Local photo-opportunities of A4A winners at Spar shops will be targeted at local press to make the link between the retailer selling the tickets and beneficiary projects.
Comedian Billy Connolly will front 10 television commercials. In the run-up to May 18, Camelot’s full-frontal media blitz also includes a 4,000-site hoarding campaign and a mailshot to introduce 18 million homes to the new Lotto play-slips.