A very different lottery ad story by TBWA\Neboko for the Dutch State Lottery’s annual New Year’s Eve campaign that you might always remember. Its message is that some things in life are more valuable than winning a big prize.

It’s the touching story of a son who’s not sitting around waiting for luck to happen, but instead takes his father on the journey of a lifetime. The commercial ends with the call, Don’t wait for happiness to happen to you. The music that underlines it is the result of a special collaboration between Dutch composer, Jorrit Kleijnen from the band, Haevn, and Jacqueline Govaert, lead singer of the Dutch band, Krezip, who also wrote the song.

The Dutch State Lottery has built a history of powerful stories. The bar was set high for this year. “Every year, the expectations for our new campaign are high. This year we decided to build further on a tradition that we started a couple of years ago. A father and son are the main characters, with husky Frida playing the supporting role. We hope to move the people in the Netherlands again with this beautiful and heartwarming story. The sharing of love and happiness is something that can’t be expressed in money, and that’s the feeling we want to trigger,” stated Michael Kastelijns, business director at the Dutch State Lottery.

In past years, the State Lottery stole the hearts of the Dutch audience with dog, Frekkel (2018); the hedgehog, Freddie (2019); the cat, Frummel, (2020); and Fritsie the cuckoo clock (2021) as the main characters. The first three commercials have all been awarded with a Dutch audience award, the Gold Loeki; the fourth won a Silver Loeki.

TBWA\NEBOKO created the concept for this year’s campaign again. “In the New Year’s campaigns, we always try to push the message that 30 million euros is the second-most beautiful prize and that some things in life are more valuable. With this story, we want to inspire people to not procrastinate great plans until the day they win the lottery, but to do it right now. A disruptive thought for a lottery campaign that aims to move people and inspire,” stated Patritia Pahladsingh, managing director TBWA\NEBOKO.

The commercial was directed by Ismael of Pink Rabbit, who directed Freddie the hedgehog in 2019.

The commercial launched on December 10 on all Dutch TV channels and will run on social media, online, radio, out-of-home, and retail channels where New Year’s Eve lottery tickets are sold between December 10 and 31.

Credits
Client: Dutch State Lottery 
Client Team: Michael Kastelijns, Froukje Claes, Arno de Jong

Agency: TBWA\NEBOKO                                                                                                   

Production Company: Pink Rabbit
Director: Ismael
Music: Jacqueline Govaert & Jorrit Kleijnen
Media Agency: Mindshare.Greenhouse
Social Media: Hammerfest
Online: Men in Green
Shopper Marketing: Brompton Road
PR: NewsLab