Powerball campaign invites the UK to dream bigger than ever
The lottery game marks its arrival by exploring the silly and surreal things you could do with the prize money, from buying football clubs to founding music festivals
The popular American lottery game Powerball has announced its highly-anticipated UK debut with a major new campaign, which launched last week and is currently rolling out across the country. Created by Allwyn, the operator of The National Lottery, in collaboration with creative agency VCCP, What Would You Do? invites audiences to dream about the truly ‘transformative’ potential of a Powerball win.
“We are encouraging the country to think bigger, past the usual stuff and into the realms of, ‘Oh yeah, I really could make almost anything happen’,” explains Darren Bailes, global CCO at VCCP. “This is going to be a conversation with the country about their wildest dreams … some for good wholesome reasons, some for pure silliness, and some just for the sheer hell of it.”
The integrated campaign spans TV, cinema, social media, creator partnerships, retail, experiential activations and a large-scale national out-of-home programme. Alongside a couple of short teasers, Allwyn and VCCP have released a hero film that unveils the deepest desires of hopeful players around the country, showing where their minds go when asked to dream big.
In the film, a narrator discusses the heady possibility of becoming the new owner of a struggling football club, turning its dilapidated grounds into a landmark stadium and saving it for the rest of the fans. Or, he notes, you could create your own music festival, complete with a “boss line-up, obviously”.
Football and festivals not your thing? Perhaps a giant mural to “say the little things, bigger than you ever could before”. The film concludes with the narrator suddenly addressing the audience, posing the tantalising question: “What would you do with Powerball money?”
On July 19, the campaign’s hero film launched as a 30-second television spot during the biggest moment in global sport: the FIFA World Cup Final. Allwyn also secured several other premium placements, including a spot at cinemas nationwide before the screening of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey – arguably the most anticipated film release of the year.
These placements are complemented by significant social media involvement, such as using Snapchat’s Imagine Lens, which features generative AI technology, to invite audiences to bring their Powerball money dreams to life; as well as partnerships with various online creators, who will “visualise the life-changing wins through niches of comedy, cooking, art, community, and more”.