Case Study

Shot of a Lifetime

Client

Washington’s Lottery

Industry

Retail
Lifestyle

Services

Creative Earned Media Campaign

Situation

21 days. That’s all we had between the time Governor Inslee said he was interested in partnering with Washington’s Lottery to boost COVID-19 vaccinations and the live press conference when he announced the “Shot of a Lifetime” promotion. 

That’s 21 days for research, naming, rules, eligibility, prizes, drawing procedures, and to develop press material and every media Q&A you could think of. 21 days for the collective team to go from zero to a literal $1 million announcement on live TV.

Execution

Then came the fun part…weekly drawings and notifying the winners. Normally, when you play the lottery and win, you’re the first one to know because you have the winning ticket. But with “Shot of a Lifetime,” everything was reversed.

If you were at least 12 years old and vaccinated, you were automatically entered, so there was no ticket for you to check. Washington’s Lottery simply drew your number, had DOH match it to your name, and then called you with the good news.

These days, though, people don’t answer their phones or return random texts.

They thought it was a scam.

The best part was that the Department of Health reported that “Shot of a Lifetime” boosted COVID vaccination rates in WA by 24 percent. Not bad for having just 21 days to get started.

We saturated the media with vaccine promotion messaging, sharing the latest daily facts and figures – number of people in the vaccine database, growth in vaccines since last week, prizes claimed, prizes unclaimed, number of prizes coming up, and the phone number to call if think you’re being scammed.

If a media outlet wanted a lottery official for a live Zoom interview on the 5 a.m. news and then again on the 11 p.m. news, we’d make it happen.

We told stories of winners being real people and helped them craft and release statements, and provided media training for those that chose to join the Governor for one of his weekly press conferences.

We also moderated a Microsoft Teams interview with the final winner – an Elementary school teacher who also serves in the Army National Guard – and more than three dozen media outlets.

Our job was to overcome all of that and help spread the word that getting vaccinated could win you lots of cash and prizes. And that it was the real deal. 

Results

24%

1,678:1

1,314

179

news stories

news outlets reporting

ROI

boost in COVID vaccinations

809.6M

$60.7M

impressions

in news value

Awards

The “Shot of a Lifetime” Campaign won two PRSA awards.

Previous

TEMPLATE: DUPLICATE ME
Next

Connexion Insurance: The Northwest Connexion Challenge