For 16 years, creative agency Cactus has been making Coloradans laugh with their irreverently funny ads for the Colorado Lottery – the latest, entitled “Grateful Outdoors,” celebrates 40 years and $4 billion in lottery proceeds donated to Colorado outdoors with an all-new 40th Anniversary scratch-off game.
Click HERE to watch the new spot.
“Celebrating 40 years and $4 billion dollars in proceeds back into the places Coloradans play through parks, trails, open space, wildlife, and outdoor equity, is an enormous milestone for the Colorado Lottery,” Tom Seaver, director of the Colorado Lottery, says. “We look forward to adding billions more in the years to come. Our business model will continue to focus on our three pillars of revenue, responsibility, and conservation.”
For Joe Conrad, Founder and CEO of Cactus, the 16 years of success with Colorado Lottery starts a shared love of the lottery business itself – the excitement of the games, the winning feeling it brings to players, and the positive impact lottery sales proceeds have on the great outdoors in our state.
“We also share a drive to make creative work that’s unexpected and memorable, every time,” Conrad says. “That passion for the business, creative alignment, and years of great sales results have made for a relationship that’s characterized by strong mutual trust. Cactus works with brands that help people thrive and the Colorado Lottery is a thrive brand through and through. The proceeds generated from Lottery games help make Colorado a great place to live, work and play.”
Conrad adds that in the lottery business, it’s all about driving sales, but by researching consumer ‘belief and behavior’ you can better understand what drives consumer sentiment and purchasing decisions.
“Our creative process unpacks the interplay between our beliefs and our behaviors and how they influence each other, and for lotteries, we’ve found real benefit in digging into a player’s inhibiting beliefs, to understand what’s keeping people from playing a particular game, or playing as often as we’d like. By addressing those beliefs, our work can potentially shift behaviors and create change that sticks for the long term.”
In the new spot, a pair of hikers are greeted by a friendly tree and rock who are eager to thank them for supporting nature by being avid Colorado Lottery players and offering them the newest scratch-off game. That’s when a friendly bear slaps them on the back and reassuringly notes, “and to think I was going to eat you.”
Ethan Nosky, Lottery Intelligence Supervisor for Cactus, adds, “Having a purpose-driven client partner like Colorado Lottery, and seeing the impact that $4 billion has made on our state, it’s the inspiration for all our work with them,” Nosky says. “Creating the 40th Anniversary Celebration Scratch ticket campaign was an exciting challenge for our team, highlighting a great new product while telling the conservation story of the Colorado Lottery.”
Cactus’ Top 3 Colorado Lottery Ads:
So what spots does Cactus rate as among their favorite Colorado Lottery spots over the last 16 years?
- Mayhem Scratch: For this family of scratch games launch, Cactus created a world of amateur bowling with visual cues taken from ‘The Big Lubowski.’ This proved to be one of the funniest and hardest-working campaigns they have done, and the results were spectacular.
- Holiday Scratch: It’s not easy to pull at the heartstrings while capturing the joy of winning a scratch game. The elderly couple in this spot makes it one of the most endearing lottery spots ever.
- Winning Country: To relaunch Lotto+ as ‘Colorado’s game’ our team had a blast crafting this spot that could easily pass for a 1970s commercial from a little brewing concern down in Golden, Colorado. It captured the pioneering spirit of Colorado and what makes it such a unique and special place.
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Creative Credits:
Client: Colorado Lottery
Project: “Grateful Outdoors” (:30)
Airdate: March 2023
Agency: Cactus, Denver, CO
Group Creative Director: Shea Tullos
Creative Director: Patrick Campbell
Senior Art Director: Spencer Beuerle
Senior Copywriter: Joey Spearman
Production Director: Martha Douglas
Brand Strategy Director: Stacey Trunnell
Account Director: Danielle Deats
Lottery Intelligence Supervisor: Ethan Nosky
Senior Account Manager: Leah Glazer
Project Manager: Torrie Eberhard
Production Company: More Media, Los Angeles
Director Ben Berman
Director of Photography: Dan Alderstein
Executive Producer: Stephen Buchanan
Executive Producer: Blaize Saunders
Line Producer: Danny Taff
Post-Production Company: KreatureKid, Denver, CO
Owner / Designer / Sculptor: Adam Dougherty