Lotto 6/49 is Canada’s most popular national lottery game and has been offering Canadians a chance to win daily since 1982. In Quebec, over 70% of Lotto 6/49 tickets were being sold to the over 50 crowd. Millennials were less enthusiastic, associating the lottery more with its poor odds of winning than the promise of riches. So Loto-Québec, which runs Lotto 6/49 in the province, saw an opportunity to inspire this segment to play.
In 2015, Loto-Québec and agency partner Sid Lee launched an integrated campaign “You Should Play 6/49” that highlighted everyday moments of luck (for instance, catching every green traffic light) as evidence that anyone is lucky enough to win, and expanded on the ubiquitous phrase, “You should play the lottery,” to turn these moments into purchase occasions.
In the three years since its launch, “You Should Play 6/49” has successfully reassociated its brand with luck, resulting in increased brand health metrics and sales among the millennial segment. Along with a Gold win for Sustained Success, the campaign earned the Grand Effie at the inaugural Effie Awards Canada competition in 2019.
Below, Alex Bernier, Executive Creative Director at Sid Lee, shares more insight behind this effective work.
Effie: What were your objectives for the “You Should Play 6/49” campaign?
AB: People, specifically young adults, didn’t believe in their chances of winning anymore. Our main goal was to shift the way millennials perceived lottery games such as Lotto 6/49 and inspire them to feel lucky enough to play the lottery.
Effie: What was the strategic insight that led to the big idea?
AB: While Millennials did not seem to believe in their odds of winning the lottery, they clearly seemed to believe in their odds of winning in everyday life. We found that they revealed themselves to be an amazingly positive generation. As we pushed our thinking further, we realized Millennials’ optimism and positive outlook on the future could completely change the reason why they play Lotto 6/49.
Luck emerged when we put our optimist Millennial hat on. The world became a place filled with luck. It is everywhere and it happens all the time. How is it that one morning, we can hit every green light on our way to work? How is it that our flight to Paris is on time when all others were cancelled? How could we have met our future husband or wife on a subway ride? As a matter of fact, big or small, many of life’s most beautiful things happen by chance.
To truly benefit from this insight, we needed to find a way to make Millennials think of Lotto 6/49 when luck occurs.
Effie: How did you bring the idea to life?
AB: This idea works well across applications, including web, TV, radio, newspapers, displays and experiential. We can think of a million different scenarios that show how lucky we are every day. The creation goes beyond the scenes we film. We can show originality through both traditional media as well as online advertising. For example, we placed a “You Should Play 6/49” media message above the article for the first baby of the year, and we had displays in metro stations when the last train passed to remind passengers that they were lucky they caught it. We also did a few activations. For example, we sent real four-leaf clovers to PyeongChang to support Team Canada, and we helped festivalgoers find their lost items at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival, to name just a few.
Effie: How has the campaign evolved since its initial launch?
AB: Each year we had different goals.
Year 1: Launch the new expression and entrench it into the culture
First, we needed to show everyday moments of luck that would remind people of the expression. Due to cultural and language factors in Quebec, we favoured television as it remained the best medium with which to reach Millennials and others. We created a flexible platform of short TV spots that recreated situations that people could relate to, whether they happened to them personally or not, creating endless possibilities to pick up on new moments of luck.
Year 2: Extend usage to more situations & contexts
The second year, Lotto 6/49 emphasized a few moments of luck Millennials would most likely engage with. In Quebec, hockey players hitting the post is a notorious moment of luck, usually the mark of a crucial play in NHL games. Lotto 6/49 created ad banners that appeared on hockey fans’ TV screens only on those occasions.
Year 3: Make moments of luck feel even more personal
The third year, Lotto 6/49 looked for ways to create genuine moments of luck Millennials could encounter. Every August in northern Quebec, a shooting-star spectacle lights up the night sky. While most Quebecers know about it, few are able make the trip to see it in person. Lotto 6/49 went on location to broadcast it on Facebook Live. Every time a shooting star appeared, a banner prompted viewers to make a wish with a purchase. In only three hours, it reached 1 in 10 Quebecers.
Effie: How did you know the work worked? Were there any surprises in the results you achieved?
AB: When “You Should Play Lotto 6/49” became part of Quebec’s popular culture, we knew that it worked. Having people share with us their moment of luck and seeing how the campaign really evolved into something bigger than the promotion was really a positive surprise.
Effie: What are the biggest learnings you took away from this case?
AB: My first lesson would be that at the end of day, it’s all about collaboration and being open-minded. This is a perfect example of how strategy, media, and creation are equally important in the deployment and execution of a campaign. Ideas can come from anyone on the team, from the client side, from other disciplines, and even from just walking down the street. They can come from everywhere. My second one is easy: have fun! We had a lot of fun together as a team and it showed in the final result.
Alex Bernier, Executive Creative Director & Partner, Sid Lee
Now creative director, Alex joined Sid Lee as a copywriter fresh out of school (even though he thought he was an Art Director – that’s how green he was). Whatever brand he touches he brings to the next level, namely because of the high-quality standards he imposes on himself and his team. It’s probably that same reason that led him to become the youngest president of the 9th edition of the Créa, an award show celebrating advertising in the province of Quebec.
