In advertising, there are a few fixtures of the holiday season as regular as decorating Christmas trees and popping champagne on New Year’s Eve. Coca-Cola’s Christmas truck goes on tour, British retailer John Lewis tugs at the heartstrings—and in the Netherlands, the Dutch State Lottery brings out the cuddly animals.
For the past several years, Dutch State Lottery’s annual New Year’s Eve campaign has ventured into magical realms with stars from the animal kingdom, ranging from a hedgehog to a cat. This time around, a Husky named Frida takes the spotlight in the ad by agency TBWA\NEBOKO.
As in previous spots, the campaign’s message is that some things in life are more valuable than winning a big prize. This latest commercial follows a son who takes his father on the trip of a lifetime after telling him he won the lottery.
Their big adventure sees them travel to the Nordic region of Lapland, where they go on a ride with the dad’s beloved huskies across a breathtaking snowy landscape. They laugh together, go fishing and see the Northern Lights.
Back at home, as the dad regales other residents of his retirement home with tales from their vacation, a staff member overhears and congratulates the grown son for winning the lottery.
“I still have to win it first,” he tells her—revealing that he only pretended to win in order to convince his dad to go on the trip.
“Don’t wait for luck to happen,” the end line says, encouraging viewers to make memories and seek happiness regardless of their luck.
A furry tradition
The pairing of an animal character with its older owner or rescuer has become a trope in the Dutch State Lottery’s recent holiday ads. Previous films have featured a dog named Frekkel, Freddie the hedgehog, a cat called Frummel and Fritsie the cuckoo clock.
“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 Friday playing the supporting role,” Michael Kastelijns, business director at the Dutch State Lottery, said in a statement. “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.”
The Dutch State Lottery runs a campaign every year at this time because, in the Netherlands, playing the lottery on New Year’s Eve is a holiday tradition. On that day, the jackpot is at its highest of the year—30 million euros.
CREDITS:
Client: Dutch State Lottery (Michael Kastelijns, Froukje Claes, Arno de Jong)
Agency: TBWA\NEBOKO
Production: Pink Rabbit
Music: Jacqueline Govaert/Jorrit Kleijnen
Media Agency: Mindshare.Greenhouse
Social Media: Hammerfest
Online: Men in Green
Shopper Marketing: Brompton Road
PR: NewsLab
