True Kiwi story at heart of Lotto’s new TV ad
When advertising executive Damon Stapleton was tasked with developing the new Lotto advert, he sat down with the marketing team at the organisation and told them a series of 16 stories, each designed to bring life to the “Imagine” platform that underpins the brand.
The Lotto team narrowed their favourites down to two before settling on one based on the true story of a former Lotto winner who pledged to share his winnings with his best mate.
Like most films “inspired by true events”, Stapleton made full use of his creative licence spinning the relatively simple premise into a tense heist video, which features a delivery guy frightening his co-worker by skipping a stop and pretending to steal the valuable cargo before revealing the golden ticket.
The advert continues Lotto’s storytelling tradition, adding to a catalogue that includes tales of a surprise pirate ship and an elaborate treasure hunt orchestrated by a deceased mother.
Emilia Mazur, Lotto’s general manager of corporate communications, said it was also important for the ad to deliver a modern representation of New Zealand.
“The country is changing and it’s more diverse and more inclusive and that’s what we want our ads to reflect as well,” she said in commenting on decision to cast a Pakeha bloke alongside a younger Indian man.
There are pitfalls in this territory in that even the most well-intentioned ads can sometimes seem reliant on well-versed cliches and stereotypes.
Stapleton said this is partly because ads are often constrained to a 15-, 30- or 60-second block, an arbitrary timeframe not always conducive to telling a well-rounded story.
To combat this constraint, Lotto has purchased full two-minute ad slots on TV and cinemas for the initial rollout of the spot.