A DOG, A HEDGEHOG & 30 MILLION EUROS
How State Lottery achieved record sales by convincing customers that their product is not that important.
CHALLENGE
State Lottery has existed for almost 300 years and is the oldest lottery in the Netherlands. In fact, it is the oldest lottery in the world. A Dutch tradition, the New Year’s Eve draw is the State Lottery’s largest draw, generating 20% of its annual revenue.
But this tradition was under pressure due to a turnover dip. With the exact same jackpot prize as prior years, no other news and an increasingly fierce competitive context, we were tasked with the question: How do we reverse this downward trend?
INSIGHT
State Lottery took a disruptive approach: instead of joining in on the ‘prize war’ of the Dutch lottery category and communicating the gigantic sums of money you can win, State Lottery makes the jackpot prize secondary to the emotion. Literally. State Lottery aims to touch the Netherlands with a unifying sentiment which is extra relevant in December: the universal emotion of being together.
This is captured in the Big Idea:
€30 million is the second best prize. Being with your loved ones is the most valuable.
SOLUTION
To bring this message to life, State Lottery needed to find a universally appealing personification of our Big Idea.
Meet Frekkel
In 2018 we introduced Frekkel, a somewhat ugly, neglected dog with a limp paw that we found in a shelter in Slovenia. He is the star in our story that follows the universal golden rules of good storytelling, with an ‘underdog’, a misunderstanding, a desperate quest and a happy ending.
The campaign itself was launched like a movie, building anticipation with movie-like ‘coming soon’ billboards. Smart phasing, special content – like behind the scenes footage and a video telling the real story of the dog – influencer marketing and Frekkel merchandise made Frekkel the star of December. And gave a much needed new impulse to the New Year’s Eve Draw.
Building on a strong foundation with Freddie
In 2019 a hedgehog named Freddie became Frekkel’s successor. Inspired by hedgehogs’ overwhelming popularity on social media, we partnered with a prop company and a VFX studio to create a prop and virtual version of Freddie. The result was just as cute as a real-life hedgehog (or perhaps even cuter).
The storyline revolves around a man who rescues hedgehog Freddie. The man loses his lottery ticket, but in the end it is Freddie who finds it back for him. The outtake of the movie: “Good things happen to those who do right.”
RESULTS
Frekkel became the talk of the town
Never before has the New Year’s Eve Draw been such a hot topic. Frekkel made headlines in offline and online press and social media. The social sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, which is rare for a commercial campaign. Dutch celebrities spontaneously expressed their love for Frekkel, to which State Lottery was quick to respond by sending them ‘I Love Frekkel’ sweaters, resulting in even more earned media and over € 2 million of free publicity value.
But all that talking converted into big wins on brand KPIs as well. Never before did the New Year's Eve campaign have such a large effect on the Top of Mind brand awareness of State Lottery: +7% points. Moreover, the campaign resulted in increases on the important brand values "brand for me" and ”likeable brand”.
By letting emotion prevail over the jackpot prize, State Lottery realized the highest turnover in 7 years, beating its goals by over €2 million. And to top it all off, the campaign won a Golden Loeki, the annual public’s choice award for the most loved TV commercial in the Netherlands.
- Turnover goal beaten by more than €2 million
- The highest turnover in 7 years
Freddie raised the bar
With Freddie we outperformed our own success. Perpetuated by 5% increase in players, State Lottery’s revenue grew to a new high. Moreover, we generated €3.5 million worth of free publicity.
This effect may be attributed to the campaign’s distinctiveness, which we had benchmarked at 30%. With 40%, Frekkel had already surpassed this score, but Freddie outperformed it with a score of almost 50%.
Furthermore, the campaign was received with positivity. Exceeding the benchmark score of 6.3, Freddie was rated with a 7.4. This helped perceived sympathy. Frekkel stood out with almost 50% sympathy on a benchmark of 30%, Freddie scored approximately 55%.
Hence, the Frekkel and Freddie campaigns demonstrated that emotion and performance go hand in hand.
- 2 Golden Loekis
- Freddie and Frekkel were awarded as best Dutch commercial of the year
- €5.5 million free publicity
- Generated by Freddie & Frekkel campaigns
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State Lottery | Freddie & Frekkel
State Lottery has existed for almost 300 years and is the oldest lottery in the Netherlands. In fact, it is the oldest lottery in the world. This is how State Lottery achieved record sales by convincing customers that their product is not that important.
