The Finnish National Lottery Embraces Its Finnishness with a Minimal Campaign

Lotto is the most iconic game in Finland. It has been a part of every Finn’s Saturdays for over 50 years. The game holds a special place in the hearts of the people, and it evokes extremely tender emotions.

Unfortunately, people have started to turn away from Lotto, as games with bigger jackpots have entered the market. The creative house SEK and Veikkaus, the Finnish government-owned betting agency, wanted to remind people of their long relationship with our unofficial national game.

There’s nothing quite like Lotto

The campaign is Finnish through and through. Finland may be the happiest country in the world, but you couldn’t tell it by looking at the people. People show emotions differently around here – if at all. Finns believe that less is more when it comes to expressing themselves.

“After a thorough strategic process with the client, we truly understood how incredibly loved the Lotto brand is in Finland and wanted to embrace that. It felt wrong to start telling people what to do if they win or create anything other than moments that reflect the very existence of who we are as a nation,” said Lauri Gran, creative director at SEK.

The campaign consists of films and print that embrace Finnishness and portray moments that are Lotto to the core. Storytelling is kept extremely Finnish: people don’t speak, expressions are minimal, things are given time, nobody plays the game, and nobody wins a thing. Absolutely perfect for the nation that gave the world Kimi Räikkönen, sauna and Aki Kaurismäki.