National lottery operator Camelot is hunting for an agency to
support the launch of its National Lottery Instants TV game show next
spring.
Camelot has approached three high profile consumer agencies for the
estimated five-figure account.
The 50-minute show will be broadcast on BBC1 on Saturday evenings and
will have a top prize of pounds 100,000. It is being launched in
conjunction with the new pounds 2, TV Dream scratch ticket.
The show, hosted by Anthea Turner, will replace the Lottery draw
programme (which has suffered a ratings drop) but will continue to
feature the main Lottery draw.
Winning TV Dreams scratchcards will give home viewers the chance to
participate in the television show. Different formats for the mid-week
lottery draw are also under consideration.
An independent Dutch programme producer was commissioned to make a pilot
show in June. Camelot received the go-ahead for the programme after it
lodged an application to lottery watchdog Oflot.
Camelot hopes that the show will boost Lottery Instants sales, which
have suffered a fall from a weekly peak of pounds 40 million shortly
after it launched in March 1995 to a low of pounds 14 million in April
this year.
Littlewood Lotto, Camelot’s main competitor in the scratchcard market
which sells pounds 1 million worth of scratchcards every week,
relaunched its brand last month in a bid to double its market share.
Camelot is also being challenged by 49s, the bookmakers daily betting
game, which has plans for a marketing drive in the new year.
