Believe in luck… - Dutch State Lottery | Clapboard Ad Archive

Dutch State Lottery’s New Year’s Eve Draw 2023 campaign, Believe in luck, created by TBWA\NEBOKO, exemplifies a confident evolution in lottery storytelling for the media and entertainment market by placing emotional resonance ahead of transactional aspiration. Eschewing the overused promise of jackpot euphoria, the film follows a young man whose brush with a time-traveling antique reveals not his riches but the enduring value of human connection, specifically love, throughout the various chapters of his imagined future. Cleverly, the narrative sets up a familiar tension—lottery ticket versus destiny—as the protagonist is thrust back to the present and must choose between a drifting ticket worth millions and the woman who appears in all the meaningful scenes of his life ahead. The campaign integrates the lottery product as both a literal and symbolic pivot, positioning the act of ticket purchase not as the culmination of personal hope but as a catalyst for reflection on what truly matters. This is a sharp deviation from the conventions of gambling advertising, especially in the context of Dutch competitors like Toto’s data-driven sports narrative or Holland Casino’s promise of luxury entertainment; instead, Dutch State Lottery claims a space where the brand is an occasion for authentic self-discovery and affirmation, rather than the ultimate source of happiness. Executed as what Clapboard’s taxonomy codifies as FORMAT#5—Exemplary Story, the campaign’s creative strategy delivers a classic three-act narrative in which the product is inextricable from the protagonist’s emotional climax, confirming the lottery’s relevance not in fantasy but in everyday choices and relationships. The campaign’s thematic consistency also builds on Dutch State Lottery’s established tradition of heart-led holiday advertising, following last year’s focus on intergenerational adventure with a nuanced meditation on partnership and the passage of time, both timely for the values-inflected New Year moment and broadly motivational for reflective adults. Through this approach, the brand demonstrates an understanding that real affinity in this category is forged by aligning the lottery experience with values that transcend wealth—anchoring its proposition in happiness as a communal, chosen state. The campaign earns 72/100 in Clapboard’s global creative archive. As the New Year’s advertising battleground grows ever more crowded, this campaign matters because it signals a maturing category-wide commitment to stories that frame gambling as a backdrop for the pursuit of meaning, rather than its replacement.