Anyone with money can get into the White House
Gambling marketing In order to boost the stagnating sales of the million-dollar lottery introduced four years ago, media partners are also beating the advertising drum - with very different implementations.
Gambling marketing In order to boost the stagnating sales of the million-dollar lottery introduced four years ago, media partners are also beating the advertising drum - with very different implementations.
At the turn of the millennium, Swisslos - better known until 2002 as the Intercantonal National Lottery - launched the new countdown lottery game Millennium Lotto 2000. Today, the lottery is simply called the Million Ticket. The game is appropriately based on the Advent calendar and offers tempting prizes every day in December with 31 scratch-off windows - from the million francs (13 times) to 27 prestige cars to 30 world trips and a total of over 800,000 prizes worth around 43 million francs. While the first edition of the game sold out in just a few weeks thanks to its novelty character and countdown function shortly before the new millennium, in subsequent years some of the editions were left lying around at the points of sale. This was not helped by the change in the prize schedule according to the popularity of the prizes, nor by the high chances of winning or the media partners who joined. In return for the exclusive publication rights to the winning symbols, the latter only took over the communication function for the time being - in the form of home stories about the lucky winners on Blick and SonntagsBlick or as a Saturday evening show on SF DRS. Nevertheless: "The million-dollar lottery ticket has established itself on the market and found its loyal customers," Swisslos Product Manager Daniela Gerber is convinced.
Gambler's savings mentality
Compared to the other ten Swisslos games with prizes of between 1 and 20 francs, the threshold for the Million Lottery ticket is significantly higher. Only those who fork out 100 francs are allowed to scratch day after day. In the harsh economic climate, the stakes are obviously considered too high by many. As the purchase price is not set to change, marketing has been stepped up: for the first time, the game has crossed language borders, with Le Matin and TSR as well as Il Caffè and TSI joining as media partners. As a result, the total print run has grown to 8,000,000 tickets for the first time, despite a fall in the number of tickets sold in German-speaking Switzerland (-11.5%).
For the two main media partners Blick and SoBli, the two in-house agencies GGK, Zurich, and FCB Leutenegger Krüll advertise the game - with very different demands on the originality of the implementation. While GGK was satisfied with a rather obvious advertising idea for the trial subscription combination, the creative team at Walliseller FCBLK exaggerated the possibilities open to a million-dollar winner. "The idea of the campaign is that the million gives the winner the freedom to buy certain things that they would never be able to afford as a normal person," says Account Manager Petar Dakovic. The fact that the ludicrous proposals would probably require more than a tired million francs does not detract from the whole thing, as the exaggeration is balanced out with real satirical content. Three radio spots, which are on air from Friday to Sunday in December, flank the three print ads.
Swisslos advertising lottery: GGK delivered well-behaved advertising, FCBLK already sees Gigi Oeri as the heir to FIFA boss Blatter.
At the turn of the millennium, Swisslos - better known until 2002 as the Intercantonal National Lottery - launched the new countdown lottery game Millennium Lotto 2000. Today, the lottery is simply called the Million Ticket. The game is appropriately based on the Advent calendar and offers tempting prizes every day in December with 31 scratch-off windows - from the million francs (13 times) to 27 prestige cars to 30 world trips and a total of over 800,000 prizes worth around 43 million francs. While the first edition of the game sold out in just a few weeks thanks to its novelty character and countdown function shortly before the new millennium, in subsequent years some of the editions were left lying around at the points of sale. This was not helped by the change in the prize schedule according to the popularity of the prizes, nor by the high chances of winning or the media partners who joined. In return for the exclusive publication rights to the winning symbols, the latter only took over the communication function for the time being - in the form of home stories about the lucky winners on Blick and SonntagsBlick or as a Saturday evening show on SF DRS. Nevertheless: "The million-dollar lottery ticket has established itself on the market and found its loyal customers," Swisslos Product Manager Daniela Gerber is convinced.
Gambler's savings mentality
Compared to the other ten Swisslos games with prizes of between 1 and 20 francs, the threshold for the Million Lottery ticket is significantly higher. Only those who fork out 100 francs are allowed to scratch day after day. In the harsh economic climate, the stakes are obviously considered too high by many. As the purchase price is not set to change, marketing has been stepped up: for the first time, the game has crossed language borders, with Le Matin and TSR as well as Il Caffè and TSI joining as media partners. As a result, the total print run has grown to 8,000,000 tickets for the first time, despite a fall in the number of tickets sold in German-speaking Switzerland (-11.5%).
For the two main media partners Blick and SoBli, the two in-house agencies GGK, Zurich, and FCB Leutenegger Krüll advertise the game - with very different demands on the originality of the implementation. While GGK was satisfied with a rather obvious advertising idea for the trial subscription combination, the creative team at Walliseller FCBLK exaggerated the possibilities open to a million-dollar winner. "The idea of the campaign is that the million gives the winner the freedom to buy certain things that they would never be able to afford as a normal person," says Account Manager Petar Dakovic. The fact that the ludicrous proposals would probably require more than a tired million francs does not detract from the whole thing, as the exaggeration is balanced out with real satirical content. Three radio spots, which are on air from Friday to Sunday in December, flank the three print ads.
Swisslos advertising lottery: GGK delivered well-behaved advertising, FCBLK already sees Gigi Oeri as the heir to FIFA boss Blatter.
Lottery No FCBLK campaign for the SVP, but for the pre-Christmas million-dollar lottery and its media carriers >> p. 9
Luca Aloisi
