Since 2023, It Doesn’t Only Happen to Others, the platform of FDJ’s bi-weekly lottery brand, LOTO, has been based on an insight as true as it is captivating – winners don’t usually share the good news to their loved ones. Not out of malice, but to avoid disrupting their daily lives. They prefer to improve their lives little by little, almost discreetly, until suspicion creeps in.

The platform launched with a commercial, Grandma, built around a mysterious grandmother, an ordinary Sunday lunch, and an entire family that begins to notice something was looking funny. Surimi that looks a little too much like lobster. Gifts that are a little too generous. Trips…and a question that obsesses everyone – Did Grandma win, yes or no?

Now, BETC Paris has turned that into an intriguing campaign – a mockumentary-style true crime show, that transforms a simple Sunday lunch into a national scandal.

The new chapter, Grandma’s Secret, launched with a highly stylised trailer for a Netflix-style documentary, suspenseful and narrative-driven, inspired by the major investigations that captivate French households. Interviews, surveillance videos, dubious family photos, absurd clues…All the ingredients of true crimes are there. Except here, the mystery isn’t a murder, but a lottery ticket. Grandma’s secret leads with a 2-minute trailer, and its official poster, like a real series release.

“We wanted to treat a lottery win like a news item: with the same suspense, the same collective obsession… but for a story this time that is profoundly funny and French,” explained Olivier Aumard, executive creative director at BETC Paris.

The full campaign is a 100% digital ecosystem, with content dedicated to each character of the family, everyone of them conducting their investigation in their own way, each one of them convinced of holding the definitive proof.

The highlight is an original podcast written and narrated by journalist, Christophe Hondelatte, the undisputed master of audio investigations in France. Fifteen minutes of storytelling, suspense, and deliciously awkward family drama… ike a new Hondelatte case, except here, there’s no crime, but a lobster on the table.

The trailer and videos were directed by Hafid Benamar and produced by SOVAGE, long-standing partners of the LOTO campaign since 2023. The campaign achieved the highest level of green production certification, EcoProd Label, with 3 stars, a first for the group. As such, FDJ becomes the first advertiser in Kantar’s top 100 to achieve this level of excellence in France.

The first films of the saga, launched in 2023, delivered the best business results of the decade for a Friday the 13th. The new platform demonstrated a historic improvement across all brand metrics, particularly in play incentive (+12 points after viewing) and consideration (+8 points for “a funny campaign”).