Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The New Zealand Herald has been quoted as saying that "Lotto ads are one of the few pieces of advertising that New Zealanders actually look forward to" So when we cut off the ending of our commercial, the nation was up in arms. Until we revealed to them we'd created a site they could to explore to unlock the ending, which took them even deeper into the story.

Background

Many Lotto players do something strange: They delay checking their ticket to give themselves longer to imagine. So instead of focusing on the win - like every Lotto ad on the planet - we focused on the wait.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

A Lotto campaign that rewarded viewers by making them wait.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The customer insight is something that all Lotto players know, but no one had talked about. So we brought it to life in film, and then let them experience it for real, by giving them the same feeling as the characters in the story.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

First we created a story about a group of Antarctic researchers who put off checking their ticket so they can dream for the 6 months they're stuck there. But then, just as the ad is coming to the climax... We cut off the ending. The public reaction was instant. But we took our time responding. In fact, we made them wait a month before finally revealing a site where the ending could be found. But only if the user was patient enough to search through the Antarctic base where the researchers had spent 6 months. For over 5 weeks we built suspense and anticipation amongst viewers, and allowed them to experience the fact that joy isn't just found in winning, it's also in the anticipation.

List the results (30% of vote)

Over 145,000 New Zealanders spent more than 3.2 years searching the base in Antarctica, waiting in anticipation to find out the ending of the ad.