SickKids Foundation Overhauls its Lottery Programme

Ontario’s charitable lottery market is dominated by long-established programs and a handful of category leaders. Seeing this as a market opportunity, SickKids Foundation set out to overhaul their entire lottery programme and to redefine themselves within the charitable lottery landscape.

A cornerstone of the strategic overhaul included reevaluating the brand positioning of the SickKids Lottery. In 2018, three years after the multi-award-winning SickKids VS platform was created, the SickKids and Cossette teams saw an opportunity to leverage the power of the brand platform to reinvent the charitable lottery sector and further cement the hospital’s position as an industry leader.

The creative rebrand, which includes lottery-specific 30-second TV spots for the first time ever, leans into humour to show a more playful side of the SickKids brand. 

“SickKids Lottery players are motivated by supporting the hospital, but they’re also motivated by the chance of winning prizes. This shouldn’t be surprising — most of us are more motivated by win-win situations, and that relatability is what makes this campaign more memorable and stand out in the market,” says Craig McIntosh, executive creative director at Cossette. “The VS platform is so well recognized and has been so well received. We wanted to leverage that and use humour to show a different side of the brand and demonstrate the platform’s versatility.”

Driven by the desire to focus on the acquisition of new players, this year’s SickKids Lottery features a record number of 10 grand prizes - more than any other charity lottery in Ontario - and maintains the industry’s best 1:2 odds of winning. The team also leveraged data insights to deepen its focus on re-engaging past ticket purchasers, and expanding their cross-selling efforts to their existing donor base. A newly created lottery membership program also provides purchasers the opportunity to sign up to auto-register for future lottery programs.

“Everything about this lottery is different, not just for SickKids but for the whole charitable lottery sector in general. The VS platform is so widely-recognisable, and this rebrand was about leveraging that to introduce something complementary that’s as effective as it is engaging,” says Heather Clark, SVP of mass, direct and digital marketing at SickKids Foundation. “We’ve been able to leverage data to develop a more fulsome marketing approach and deepen our insights to target new, lapsed, and existing purchasers in a completely different and more strategic way.”