‘It’s about people, not prizes’: Camelot marketer on the Lottery Christmas ad

The brief to its agency Adam & Eve/DDB was simple, explains Camelot’s head marketer Anna McInally: “It’s not about prizes, it’s about people.” After the success of the summer campaign, they knew they were on to something with storytelling. “Cutting through Christmas is really hard,” she admits. “How do we make it feel unmissable?”

It had to be gripping, but it wasn’t always going to be a romantic story. “That was a surprise,” says McInally. “One of my favorite films at Christmas is Love Actually. There’s a quote that Martine says, ‘if you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you?’ And I think if you can’t believe at Christmas, when can you?”

It’s been a long process for the team to get to this point, with some funny moments along the way. “We were sitting on one of the hottest days of the year and the agency were wearing Santa hats – it was a bit weird, but we just knew we were on to something amazing.”

Knowing that this was going to be a big moment for the organization, the marketers notes that they had to get their “shit together” and “made sure to brief them in good time so they could do something amazing.”

Without the right team it wouldn’t have been possible, and bringing on Oscar-winner Tom Hooper was key. “You can be a little starstruck, but you have to put it aside,” explains McInally. Hooper has worked on some major films including The King’s Speech and The Danish Girl. “The minute we saw his treatment and the moment we met, the way he spoke, I just felt we were in safe hands.

“He has such a clear vision of what he wants to achieve. You know when you speak to someone and you just hear ‘yes’ in your head – he gets this. Straight away he shared the ambition that we had.”

The director is well-known in the industry for his impeccable casting talents. “He’s obsessed,” adds McInally. “We didn’t pick our final lady until right at the end. We had someone, but he wanted a few more hours and came up with someone else.”

Shooting on a live train over the course of eight hours was no easy feat for everyone involved. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster,” admits McInally, before jokingly adding that the agency has said they will “never write a script with a train ever again.”

For viewers, the culminating moment when the leading lady hands over the winning £15m lottery ticket to her train buddy has been a talking point: would you? “I suppose it’s about how much I fancy the guy?” laughs the marketer, before explaining that what she loves most about the campaign is that the brand is very present throughout, but it “really is about those two connecting as human beings.” It leaves a lot of scope for next year, but she’s tight-lipped on where the story might go.

Over the next few weeks, the campaign will continue to roll out across the UK with bespoke social media activations, photo booths placed in train stations that link to a digital billboard, fun radio ads that have people imagining winning the lottery out loud and a very special out-of-home (OOH) build that features the couple embracing as a ticket waves in the wind.

“I do believe that little pink ticket that people buy and have in their hands is almost that little glimmer of hope, so I’m hoping that people feel like anything is possible,” she concludes “Whether it be love or the lottery.”

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