Father and Son Go on Journey of a Lifetime with ‘Husky Frida’ in Dutch State Lottery Film

Some things in life are more valuable than winning a big prize. That is the message that the Dutch State Lottery and TBWA\NEBOKO propagate in their yearly New Year’s Eve campaign. The campaign kicks off with the release of the commercial: a touching story of a son who’s not sitting around waiting for luck to happen, but instead takes his father on the journey of a lifetime. The music that puts the commercial together is the result of a special collaboration between Dutch composer Jorrit Kleijnen and Jacqueline Govaert, lead singer of the Dutch band Krezip.

After earlier successful campaigns with the dog Frekkel, hedgehog Freddie, cat Frummel, and Fritsie the cuckoo clockbird as the main characters, the bar was set high for this year. "Every year, the expectations for our new campaign are high. This year we decided to build further on a tradition that we started a couple of years ago. A father and son are the main characters, with husky Frida playing the supporting role. We hope to move the people in the Netherlands again with this beautiful and heartwarming story. The sharing of love and happiness is something that can’t be expressed in money, and that’s the feeling we want to trigger'', says Michael Kastelijns, business director at the Dutch State Lottery.

In the commercial, with the closing theme 'Don’t wait for happiness to happen to you,' we follow a son who takes his father on a trip after he tells the old man he has won the lottery. Father and son relive their ultimate journey that they had in the past. They go back to Lapland one more time to relive their great adventures and go for a ride with his beloved huskies. The old man is ecstatic, and you can feel the special bond between father and son. Once they get back, the son appears to have another surprise.

In the past years, the State Lottery managed to steal the hearts of the Dutch audience with several appealing New Year’s Eve campaigns. With success: dog ‘Frekkel’ (2018), the hedgehog ‘Freddie’ (2019), the cat ‘Frummel’ (2020) and Fritsie the cuckoo clock (2021) as the main characters. The first three commercials have all been awarded with a Dutch audience award, the Gold Loeki; the fourth won a Silver Loeki. TBWA\NEBOKO once again created the concept for this year’s campaign. "In the New Year’s campaigns, we always try to push the message that 30 million euros is the second-most beautiful prize and that some things in life are more valuable. With this story, we want to inspire people to not procrastinate great plans until the day they win the lottery, but to do it right now. A disruptive thought for a lottery campaign that aims to move people and inspire", says Patritia Pahladsingh, managing director TBWA\NEBOKO.

This year too, the story is enhanced by narrative, emotional music through a special collaboration. This song was written and sung by Jacqueline Goavert, lead singer of the Dutch band Krezip. Composer Jorrit Kleijnen, known from the band HAEVN, was responsible for the arrangement and production. The commercial was directed by Ismael of Pink Rabbit, who directed ‘Freddie’ the hedgehog in 2019.

The commercial will be launched on December 10th on all Dutch TV channels. The campaign will then be rolled out on social media, online, radio, out-of-home, and retail channels where New Year's Eve lottery tickets are sold between December 10th and 31st. 

Watch the full film here.