Lotto NZ backs its winning formula; launches new ‘Mum’s Wish’ TV campaign via DDB New Zealand
A year on from the launch of Lotto NZ’s hugely successful ‘Pop’s Gift’ campaign, DDB and Lotto NZ have unveiled its spiritual successor; Mum’s Wish’.
This new Lotto Powerball story revolves around a close-knit family of four siblings who come together at their childhood home to fulfill a strange last request from their late mother. What looks like a get-your-hands-dirty job to get the house ready for sale, turns out to be something entirely unexpected.
DDB chief creative officer, Damon Stapleton, says the 90-second film is a continuation of Lotto NZ’s ‘Imagine’ brand platform launched in July 2015, which is once again directed by the award-winning Steve Ayson from The Sweet Shop.
Says Stapleton: “This whole journey began with a key insight. We’ve all dreamed of what we would do if we ever ‘won big’ — pay off mortgages, chuck in the day job, take amazing holidays and so on. But would we really?
“We found out through talking to Lotto NZ that the reality of what big winners do is quite different – they instead chose to help others, friends and family.”
Lotto winners demonstrated that the real power of Lotto isn’t that it gives you money – what it really gives you is unlimited time, freedom and choice.
Says Stapleton: “We wanted to tell the Lotto story that inspires players to dream, which is not really about material wealth – it’s about the possibility of how lives might be changed for the better.”
Using this powerful insight, Lotto committed to a shift away from focusing on the ‘winning moment’ and instead inspiring Kiwis to dream.
Lotto NZ chief marketing officer, Guy Cousins, says this move has bought the emotion back into the brand.
Says Cousins: “We believe Kiwis care more about the intangibles of time, freedom and choice than material wealth and this has really been bought to life, first by ‘Pop’s Gift’ and now ‘Mum’s Wish’.”
Over the past year, there has been a significant lift in sales performance. More people have been playing Lotto more often and the brand has been strengthened.
Says Stapleton: “I think these results highlight the truth of what we’ve been saying for some time: Making an emotional connection with your consumers in a way that resonates and feels true is the key to driving growth for any brand.”
Says Fiona King, managing director, The Sweet Shop New Zealand: “What I loved most about this script was the original concept of such a bold and heartfelt gesture by the mother. It offered the opportunity to develop a strong emotional narrative. Once again, this was a true collaborative partnership with DDB that allowed us to make a film that brought to life how lives can be changed by Lotto. We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.”
Chief Marketing Officer: Guy Cousins
Head of Brand and Communications: Keri Merrilees
Creative Agency: DDB New Zealand
Chief Creative Officer: Damon Stapleton
Executive Creative Director: Shane Bradnick
Creative Director: Mike Felix
Creative Director: Brett Colliver
Lead Business Partner: Zoe Alden
Lead Business Partner: Nikki McKelvie
Business Director: Jaheb Barnett
Chief Strategy Officer: Rupert Price
Executive Planning Director: Lucinda Sherborne
Executive Producer: Judy Thompson
Assistant Producer: Nikita Kearsley
Production Company: The Sweet Shop
Managing Director: Fiona King
Producer: Larisa Tiffin
Director: Steve Ayson
DOP: Lachlan Milne
Post Production Company: The Sweet Shop
Post production online: Palace Studio
Editor: Simon Price, ARC Edit
Music: Soundtree, London
22 Comments
Lovely lovely. Big and beautiful. As good as they used to be.
Ayson at his best. Beautifully done.
Go Mike and Brett, legends.
I like it.
Fantastic job. Persuasive. Original. Well directed. Top marks.
So, the mum won the lottery. Told no one. Buried gold under the washing line and didn’t tell her children whilst she was alive. She didn’t take the moment of joy of letting her kids know that their futures were secure? She instead buried gold in the back garden that they would find. After she DIED?
Have I had a stroke or is this the stupidest advert of all freaking time?
Thanks for bringing up bad emotions. Cheap way in for a heartstring pull DDB. And for gambling? Bottom of the barrel.
Seems your stroke has effected your judgement. This is fantasy. The pirate ship wasn’t real either.
Spoken like a true robot “Wait, what?”.
We don’t expect you to understand human emotion.
Mum’s holding a Powerball ticket pregnant with the last of her children. I’d wager it’s the young kid pulling up at the start. So let’s say we’re thinking he’s 24? At the youngest. That been the case takes us back to 1992. Some 9 years before Powerball was even launched? The pirate ship was fantasy. This one, well…..
“make a film that brought to life how lives can be changed by Lotto”…
Yup…the story how some family’s lives are ruined thinking they will get ahead with a magic ticket or number.
..all I know is I watched it and It gave me goosebumps, nuff said
You are gold my friend!
the ad doesn’t stack in up in lots of ways, sure. But I felt it and the public will too.
Great job
OK, so think of this as a short film.
The type you would watch as a skit within a tv programme…or at a short film festival.
Forget there is any product associated with it.
Now watch it again…and think “Is this engaging / entertaining?
Short films (by their nature) have to engage from the first moment..they are usually self funded..which means they have been crafted for every second of screen time.
TropFest will bear witness to that fact.
So…if this was a short film (which it is) it falls flat on its face in so many ways….but, remember, this short film was extremely well funded (unlike most short film makers) Big name director, Editor, DP, post production etc etc.
Now that you are thinking like that….is this really that good? –
No it is not.
its god dam wonderful
It’s not a short film. Not even hypothetically.
Think of it as a New Zealand made TV ad. On NZ TV.
Yes it is good. Is it really great?
Maybe it is.
After a few months of unintentionally avoiding the cinema, I recently went to watch Doctor Strange at Queensgate in Wellington. I was there with two friends, one male and one female. We were baffled and slightly disgusted by the advert.
From a personal standpoint, I should tell you that I’ve lost both of my parents to cancer. To use the death of someone as important and beautiful and unique as Mum, even on a fiction level, to sell lotto tickets came across extremely distasteful. You’ve cheapened Mum. Never before have I had to look away from an advert in the cinema. Never before have I felt the urge (and gone gone out of my way) to write a comment about an advert. My friends also were disturbed; one of them commenting that the ad had absolutely no tact.
Now look, I’m not one to say “I’m offended.” Those words get thrown around so often in this day and age. But I will say that watching this advert was a very unpleasant experience. I hope that DDB will consider that next time they choose to release an insensitive and graceless piece of work.
It’s awful.
Oh bloody hell, Mum’s buried something under the clothes line again. I knew we should’ve institutionalised her when she started hiding my wallet in the letter box!
Lotto: Imagine….what would happen if the winner had dementia?
Should I put my Lotto money in the bank where it’ll earn $500,000+ interest or bury it in the garden and hope my kids one day find it beneath an army of maggots? Obviously the latter!