Geronimo retains hold of National Lottery brief

The business – thought to be worth around £250,000 – was reviewed over the Christmas period by former Band & Brown Communications board director Lisa Quinn.

She joined the NLPU as a director last year (PRWeek, 4 August 2006).

Quinn said the NLPU’s two main ‘creative vehicles’ – the National Lottery Awards and National Lottery Day – from this year will be held on separate days.

‘The awards have been working well but need to be more accessible to the consumer,’ she said. ‘Geronimo came up with a great idea to run a longer campaign over several weeks in the summer.’

On the reason for the review, Quinn said: ‘Being from the agency side, I didn’t know what other agencies could offer. I also wanted to write a new comms brief for good practice.’

Geronimo had worked with the unit for two years previously (PRWeek, 22 April 2005). It is not known which other agencies pitched for the business, but Quinn said her former agency did not take part. ‘I have got so many friends at B&B that it would have been quite difficult,’ she said.

The pitch panel com-prised representatives from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, lottery operator Camelot, and bodies such as The Arts Council for England.

Geronimo’s new brief will span two years, with the option of extending it for a further year.

NLPU was set up in 2003 to publicise the lottery’s support of good causes. The receivers of grants range from Olympic athletes to charitable groups.