Joys of Winning Never End in The National Lottery's Set for Life Spot

Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, is launching a brand-new campaign for its Set For Life game, which breaks this Sunday (31st March). The campaign aims to appeal to new audiences and includes a collaboration with multi-award-winning producer and musician Fraser T Smith.

The new digitally-led campaign – which follows hot on the heels of an unmissable campaign for the flagship Lotto game – was created by VCCP London and media agency, Hearts & Science. It focuses on the repeatability of winning with Set For Life – a draw-based game that takes place on Mondays and Thursdays, where people are playing for a top prize of £10,000 every month for 30 years – and has been designed to engage and entertain within social media and short formats, as well as being supported by longer 20” and 30” formats in VOD, TV and Cinema

As part of the work, VCCP has created a distinctive brand world for Set for Life, designed to set it apart from other National Lottery games. One of the key campaign elements is a brand-new track, ‘Win on Repeat’ which was produced by Fraser and which is woven throughout the integrated campaign. The assets also borrow imagery from fashion, music and film culture to create content which doesn’t look like a traditional National Lottery ad campaign.

Produced by integrated content creation studio Girl&Bear Studios, the 30” film and visual approach is designed to look more like a music video than an ad, using mixed media of joyful moments to focus on the feeling of winning again, and again, and again. This is designed to replicate the experience of winning the unique top prize of £10,000 every month for 30 years, and the amazing life upgrades that this could offer.

The film was a collaboration between award-winning French director Luc Janin and Fraser, and combines a mix of visuals, beats and music. Fraser has produced music for numerous chart-topping artists including Adele, Stormzy, Gorillaz, Dave and Britney Spears. He also releases music as Future Utopia, winning multiple song writing and production awards including two Grammys and three Ivor Novellos.

The emotive triptych visuals and music feature across all campaign elements, and other features include a high-impact OOH display at London’s Outernet and landmark OOH sites around the UK, including in Liverpool and Newcastle. As the campaign aims to bring in new players, the strategy behind it was also radically different to what would typically be expected from a National Lottery campaign, focusing more on cultural moments and shared experiences than traditional ad messaging.

Steve Parkinson, brand and marketing director at Allwyn, said, “We only took the reins as operator of The National Lottery on 1st February, but in that time we’ve had not one – but two – campaigns straight out of the traps. The first was naturally for the flagship Lotto game, and now we’re focusing on Set For Life with a completely new and innovative approach. This speaks to Allwyn’s much greater emphasis on the individuality of the National Lottery games themselves – not just what’s on offer to be won, but also in terms of the National Lottery-funded projects players are supporting simply by buying a ticket. And with Set For Life’s distinctive top prize of £10,000 a month for 30 years, we had a great time dreaming up all the deluxe life upgrades this could offer – all set to the thrumming beats of Fraser’s beautifully crafted track.”

Fraser T Smith said, “When I was first approached by the Allwyn team about creating the soundtrack for the new Set For Life campaign, the brief immediately appealed to me – it was disruptive, fresh and imaginative. Working alongside Luc and the team at VCCP and Girl&Bear was a really dynamic partnership, shaping the music to the visuals and vice versa. To be working with The National Lottery, which generates so much funding for projects – including music-based initiatives across the UK – feels very satisfying.”

Darren Bailes, global CCO at VCCP Group, added, “If you win Set For Life, you win the lottery but in a different way to winning a Lotto jackpot. We wanted to create a campaign that resonates with a new audience and has a completely different shape to anything you'd expect from The National Lottery. Working with legends like Fraser and Luc, we were able to create something original and fresh that captures the emotion of winning.”

Simon Carr, chief strategy officer at Hearts & Science UK, added, “As we continue with our mission to help Allwyn reinvigorate The National Lottery, it is fantastic to see the new Set For Life campaign launch – bringing something fresh and different to both existing and new audiences using a range of category entry points to increase relevancy and participation. With unmissable, high impact formats going live across the UK to mark the campaign’s launch, Set For Life will capture the attention of those who daydream about the future… only this time they can Win on Repeat.”

The campaign will go live in a peak spot on Sunday 31st March during the Manchester City v Arsenal game, with the rest of the campaign going live across TV, social, radio, D/OOH and CRM on Monday 1st April. It runs until 12th May, with media planning and buying managed by Hearts & Science.

This is the second major campaign for Allwyn since taking over as operator of The National Lottery in February 2024. Over the course of its 10-year licence, Allwyn’s overarching ambition is to offer more games, attract more players, inject more excitement, create more winners, and raise more money for National Lottery-funded projects.