312 CHAPTER 9 ADVERTISING RESEARCHCASE 9:
Win for Life: reviving and repositioning a scratch game
Win for Life, a scratch product of the
Belgian National LotteryMan’s natural inclination to gamble has always existed and
will probably exist for all time. Any outright prohibition of
gambling would inevitably have been counter-productive and
would have embroiled this sphere of activity in an element
of wild and therefore socially dangerous clandestinity.
Being conscious of this reality, the Belgian Legislator, as
early as 1851, preferred to authorise the organisation of
certain games, and lotteries in particular, but under strict
conditions. The National Lottery operates as a public-law
limited company, and the conditions of its operation have
been laid down by the Act of 19 April 2002 and, in addition,
by the management contract between the public company
and the Belgian State. Under these terms the National
Lottery’s primary mission consists of organising, in the
general interest and according to commercial methods,
public lotteries, betting opportunities, competitions and
games of chance, but, in addition, the management con-
tract includes a parallel mission of being a socially respon-
sible public operator. The objective is to channel the various
manifestations of gambling behaviour in Belgium, to pre-
vent any excess, to protect vulnerable customers and to
make an active and autonomous contribution to the pre-
vention and treatment of gambling addiction. The National
Lottery endeavours in addition to help limit the total size
of the games of chance market in Belgium by focusing its
product development and marketing policies not on the
enlargement of the market, but on winning market share
from private operators, whether they be Belgian or foreign,
authorised or illegal. It is in this way that it has to generate,
in a socially responsible manner, the funds enabling it to
honour its financial obligations with respect to the Treasury
and the beneficiaries of its grants.
Between 2005 and 2010, the turnover of the National
Lottery ranged between €1.1 and €1.2 billion (Belgian popu-
lation: 10.8 million). Around €500 million of this turnover
comes from people playing Lotto, the oldest and no doubt
most famous star brand of the lottery. Euromillions, a
European-wide drawing game, similar to Lotto, but with
much higher prizes and lower chances of winning, accounts
for around €300 million. Scratch games account for around
€200 million. A scratch card can be purchased in retailoutlets such as newspaper or tobacco shops, supermarkets
and gas stations. By scratching parts of the surface of the
scratch card, one can immediately check the prize. One of
the most popular scratch games of the National Lottery is
Win for Life.
People can buy Win for Life scratch cards in the shop for
€3 per card. They can then scratch away the zones on the
card. Depending on the symbols that appear, participants
can win the main prize, i.e. €2000 tax free per month for
the rest of their lives, or money prizes of €2500, 250, 25,
10, 6 or 3. The chance of winning the main prize is 1 in 1
million. Overall, participants have a chance of 1 in 4 to
win a prize; 62.6% of the turnover is redistributed to the
players.
Win for Life was launched in 1998 but, until 2009
(with a short revival in 2006), turnover had been steadily
decreasing. Based on consumer insights, the decision was
taken to reposition and relaunch the product. This case
describes the campaign that ran between April and December
2010, and discusses the effectiveness measures that were
used to assess the success of the campaign.Win for Life (WFL): a product in decline
After a relaunch in 2007, accompanied by a price increase
of the card from €2.5 to €3, the turnover of WFL increased
substantially. However, from 2008 to 2009, turnover
sharply dropped by 13%, from €71.8 to 62.5 million. There
were several reasons for this decline. First of all, there was
a decreasing penetration of the product in the younger age
groups (18–34). By contrast, the number of youngsters who
know about WFL but do not buy it increased. Consequently,
the conversion from ‘knowing’ to ‘buying’ drops. Addition-
ally, the number of retail outlets that sell WFL decreased
steadily, mainly because of the disappearance of many
newspaper shops, in 2009 about one per day on average. WFL
is primarily sold through such shops. Further, the image of
WFL became more negative every year. The rational brand
parameters still score high: you can win ‘an extra monthly
wage’ for the rest of your life. This is due to the fact that earlier
advertising campaigns for WFL uniquely emphasised this
rational proposition. However, a number of emotional para-
meters of the brand score more negatively every year:M09_PELS3221_05_SE_C09.indd 312M09_PELS3221_05_SE_C09.indd 312 6/6/13 9:21 AM6/6/13 9:21 AM