Strangers Find Themselves Lucky in Love in the British Lottery's Romcom Christmas Ad

Why choose between love and money when you can have both, for the holidays, thanks to Britain’s National Lottery?

That notion drives an engaging three-and-half-minute rom-com from adam&eveDDB that begins when a guy and gal meet on a train at Christmastime. He jots down his phone number for her on the back of a lottery ticket. But the number’s smudged, so…

She sets out to find him, and his goofy ringtone might just hold the key to a special reunion on New Year’s Eve:

Lottery tickets. Isn’t it amazing how everyone wins all the time?

This “Christmas Love Story” scores by sweetly fusing classic romance themes with, well, greed. Who doesn’t want to find true love? Who doesn’t want to win the lottery? The concept clicks, backed by great storytelling from director Tom Hooper. He uses a light touch and low-key realism to build emotional engagement and deliver, quite literally, a satisfying payoff. (Hey, young lovers, you can buy that train!)

The King’s Speech, which earned Hooper an Oscar for best director, received Good Cause Funding from the Lottery through the British Film Institute. “The National Lottery is a uniting force for good in the U.K., with players raising over £30 million every week for good causes,” says Matt Ridsale, executive director of Camelot, the company that runs the lottery. “This latest campaign is all about our ambition to bring people together. It also taps into the feelings of hope and possibility that we collectively experience at Christmas, showing that it’s always worth taking a chance to win big.”

An instrumental arrangement of George Michael’s “Faith” by Sleeping at Last provides the soundtrack. It sounds lush and evocative here, wholly appropriate from the story yet completely removed from its rockabilly roots. The initiative also includes photo booths at U.K. rail stations that will project pics of passersby on nearby digital OOH displays.

“At a time when the nation needs some magic in the air, we wanted to create a larger-than-life story about the lottery and true love—two games of chance that make the perfect subject for a Christmas romantic comedy,” says adam&eveDDB group ECD Ben Tollett.

The agency’s elves have been working overtime creating campaigns for the season, each with a distinctive flavor. In addition to its push for the Lottery, adam&eveDDB told a sweet foster care story for John Lewis and celebrated farmers and suppliers in a festive spot for JL sibling Waitrose.

CREDITS

Client: Camelot
Brand: The National Lottery
Project/Campaign name: 
Client: Executive Director – Matt Ridsdale; 
Head of Marketing Communication – Anna McInally; 
Marketing Manager – Sophie Morgan; 
Brand Manager – Lauren Pinkus;
Brand Manager – Jayna Bacchus;
Assistant Brand Manager – Lucie Pelaez;
Campaign Planning Manager – Natalie Littlechild
Group Executive Creative Director: Ben Tollett
Chief Creative Officer: Richard Brim
Creatives: Forrest Clancy; Jay Parekh
Agency producers: Nikki Cramphorn; Tristan Baker
CEO: Tammy Einav
Managing Partner: Sam LeCoeur
Business Director: Fay Taylor
Account Director: Tejen Shah
Account Managers: Zahra Ahmed
Global planning partner: Heather Alderson
Planning directors: Stuart Williams, Róisín Mulroney
Senior project manager: Amy Waldman
Project manager: Caitlin Fletcher
Designer: Scott Silvey
Agency legal counsel: Tom Campbell 
Media agency: Dentsu
Media planners: Niall McEvoy; Dominic Sadler; Sarah Francis
Production company: Smuggler
Director: Tom Hooper
Executive Producer: Fergus Brown
Producer: Nick Sutherland-Dodd
Cinematographer: Steve Annis
Casting: Dan Hubbard Casting & Beast Casting
Editing Company: The Whitehouse 
Editor: Russell Icke
Editor Asst: Steven Waltham
Post Production: Framestore
Post Producer Alexia Paterson
VFX Supervisor: Pedro Sabrosa
2D Supervisor: Ben Taylor
Colourist: Simon Bourne @ Company 3 
Music Written / Composed by George Michael
Arranged & Performed by Sleeping At Last
Additional Orchestration: Chris White
Produced & Supervised by Siân Rogers @ SIREN
Label: Music Alternatives 
Publisher: Warner/Chappell
Audio Post Production: Sam Ashwell @ 750