Beyond jackpots: how cause-led creatives are reshaping Lottery campaigns
Accepted wisdom for lottery campaigns is that audiences need to see the prize on offer in the advert to make the decision to respond and play. They will come for the attractive prize (or quantity of prizes on offer) and stay if you can convince them. It is a logical conclusion and has been working on DRTV and digital since lottery campaigns began. However, we are beginning to see that it is not the only way.
Cats Protection
Cats Protection have been getting great results of the strength of their prize-led lottery creatives for years – coupled, of course, with the abundance of beautiful cats that adorn their creatives. However, over the past year, they have seen equally strong performance from another, less obvious, creative theme: the cause.
Throughout 2022 and 2023 we ran a host of cause-led digital creative with Cats Protection. Click-through rate has been pretty much even between the two creative themes. Interestingly, however, it is conversion that has been the strength of the cause-led creatives. With a 11% higher conversion rate than the prize creatives, cause is also bringing in a lower CPP.
While we’re seeing similar costs per player, stronger conversion rates suggest we could be reaching a different, more committed, audience with cause-led creatives. These are players who it would have been hard to convert with the original, prize-led creative but who are compelled by the plight of cats in need and Cats Protection’s amazing work.
There is also a case to be made that these players are more likely to continue playing for longer and more like to convert to a regular gift or other product. We are tracking attrition across the two creatives as we believe players more connected to the cause will play for longer and will be more open to other related asks: petitions, Christmas and Regular Ginvg conversion.
Why is Cause working?
Lotteries have become a core part of an increasing number of charities’ fundraising and we have seen a growing number of charities on air with prize-led themed lottery adverts. This has increased competition for gambling audiences and led to a greater risk of audience tire.
We are also in competition with big players like Omaze, who are taking over the market to the detriment of other, smaller campaigns. The prizes they offer are often larger (and more appealing; i.e a £4m house), so it is assumed they have been pulling players away from other lotteries, despite less favourable odds. While we don’t have data for entrants of the Omaze, we know that 67% of players on the National Lottery play because the prizes are big, against 24% who play to support good causes [Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, National statistics Gambling and Lotteries Taking Part Survey 2019/20]. From the many phone calls DTV have receive on our campaigns, we know that our charity players have exhibited a much deeper connection to the cause and organisation.
Cause-led appeals offer a different approach, showcasing a charity’s cause and the impact of their work ahead of the prize. The prize may still loom large in people’s minds when they respond, but it is the impact of their donation that convinces them to play. How do charities stand out in a crowded lottery marketplace?
Future Testing
On the basis of these strong digital results, DTV are creating our first cause-led lottery DRTV advert for Cats Protection, due to launch this summer. Rather than having the prize and excitement of winning front and centre, the creative focuses on how Cat Protection’s weekly lottery makes a difference, helping to provide medical care and food for cats.
Careful consideration has been given to the choice of music and tone of the advert, making sure it aligns with Cats Protection’s brand. This means that Cats Protection’s personality shines through and our data suggests that we will recruit loyal, long-term lottery players who care about cats and animal welfare.
Conclusion
Digital results are promising and, with the high delivery over the last year, we are confident in their reliability. We believe we can replicate or improve on them with the new DRTV creative in the summer.
Make sure you book yourself on our free webinar on lottery fundraising on June 6th where we will share more insights from other successful lottery programmes such as Diabetes UK. So please save the date!
Bios
Hugo is an Assistant Producer at DTV and has been working with Cats Protection since 2021.
Luke is Media Manager at DTV, heading up the data analysis on a range of our global not-for-profit clients since 2018.
Hugo Cadman
Luke Duffy