The TV commercial shows the anticipation of the draw in a National Lottery call centre, ending on a member of call centre staff taking a real call from a genuine, delighted winner.
"When our TV ads are truly entertaining, people feel differently about our brand," said Hayley Stringfellow, head of brand strategy and marketing at Camelot. This ad is "a new way in" with a powerful emotional draw.
The brief to the agency was for an idea that would let the audience know that, every day, people are having their lives changed by the National Lottery.
"The most compelling thing for us was realising that there is a contact centre full of people dedicated to answering calls from winners," said Brad Woolf, art director and one half of the winning creative team at Adam & Eve/DDB. It led to a concept that was "more show than tell", added his creative partner, copywriter Dan Bailey.
The biggest challenge was how to make the non-actors – actual call centre staff – feel comfortable on camera. The commercial was directed by Henry-Alex Rubin through Smuggler and it was Rubin's approach that made a significant difference here. "We didn’t [want to] compromise authenticity by dramatising our people and winners’ real experience. We didn’t want [them] to act or do or say something they wouldn’t naturally do," Stringfellow said. "This was critical to not falling into the trap of creating an ‘ad-y’ ad."
Second in the July/August Thinkboxes Awards was ‘Hindsight’ for Taylors of Harrogate by Lucky Generals and ‘Be Unlimited’ for Vodafone by Ogilvy UK was third.
Also shortlisted were 'Differences' for McCain by Adam & Eve/DDB and 'Negotiation' for McDonald's by Leo Burnett London.
The Thinkboxes, in association with Campaign, are the only bi-monthly awards that celebrate the UK’s world-beating TV ad creativity, in all its forms. They are judged by the Thinkbox Academy – 200 advertising and marketing luminaries who have been involved in award-winning creative work for TV.
Be in it to win it: read more about the making of the ad in the October issue of Campaign.
Want to see more great work? Head to the Thinkboxes hub
Thinkbox is the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, in all its forms. Its shareholders are Channel 4, ITV, Sky Media, Turner Media and UKTV. Thinkbox works with the marketing community with a single ambition: to help advertisers get the best out of today’s TV.
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