2020/21 NATIONAL LOTTERY PROMOTIONS UNIT ANNUAL REPORT

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE DO

The National Lottery Promotions Unit (NLPU) raises positive public awareness of National Lottery funding towards good causes, thereby contributing to the overall health of The National Lottery brand.

Through the One National Lottery approach (an agreed internal protocol within The National Lottery family to ensure consistency of messaging and promotion), the NLPU delivers campaigns that encompass traditional and digital media which unite the National Lottery family, raise public awareness and thank National Lottery players for funding thousands of incredible projects across the UK.

The NLPU is a joint venture between the 12 National Lottery distributors, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the current operator, Camelot. Six of the 12 Distributors and The Gambling Commission (who license The National Lottery to comply with any regulations made by the Secretary of State under Section 12 of the National Lottery Act) also sit on the NLPU’s Management Board to make decisions and steer strategy.

As a promotional unit that reports into the Management Board, the NLPU is uniquely placed to act and drive programmes of work forward in a way that nobody else in The National Lottery family can.

This report is prepared on behalf of the Management Board of the NLPU, which is chaired by Ros Kerslake CBE and includes representatives of the lottery distributors, DCMS and Camelot.

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Many of us saw the pandemic as a temporary interruption to normal business - how wrong could we have been? It’s fair to say there have been a lot of twists and turns since the first lockdown came into force (March 2020) but the NLPU and the wider National Lottery family have responded positively. We have achieved so much together during this time, whilst adapting remarkably well to our new ways of working.

Despite the significant challenges posed by the pandemic, the NLPU has had a successful and progressive year of activity, delivering several campaigns with the National Lottery family which have achieved impressive levels of traditional and digital media coverage throughout the UK and generated a recordbreaking amount of nominations for the 2020 National Lottery Awards.

One thing we got right in the early days of the pandemic was our quick thinking and determination to shift the entire focus of all our campaigns online to ensure that they could continue.

We also reacted well to the environment around COVID-19 – we changed and evolved our plans and adapted our campaigns accordingly to ensure they were fit for purpose and reflected the mood of the UK. We remained flexible both in terms of the precise content we delivered, but also in the detail of when and how we executed our campaigns during the pandemic. I am particularly proud of our work in delivering a number of bespoke campaigns which celebrated the extraordinary actions of thousands of people, communities and projects across the UK to address the COVID-19 emergency - all thanks to the support of more than £1 billion in good causes funding from the National Lottery.

This year has galvanised the valued position of the NLPU at the heart of The National Lottery family more than ever. This is evidenced the response and support from the family for the new NLPU 2021-23 Strategic Framework. The agreed priorities within the framework provides the NLPU with a clearer focus and a better ability to work even closer alongside the family whilst concentrating our efforts on key identified moments.

I would like to thank the entire NLPU team and everyone across the National Lottery family who have worked very hard to get us to this point this year. It’s been an absolute privilege to play our part in supporting this extraordinary effort across the country and we look forward to continuing with this work.

Jonathan Tuchner, Director, National Lottery Promotions Unit

It has been a year like no other and COVID-19 has changed our working lives, perhaps for good. Homeworking is now the new norm and it’s incredible to think that most of us have been working from home for more than twelve months now.

PART ONE

2020/21 OBJECTIVES & IMPACT

Our 2020/21 Priority Areas

1 Deliver an overarching evaluation of the 25th Birthday programme and for the NLPU to execute key recommendations for 2020.

2 Lead and deliver a high impact and creative campaign that brings the entire National Lottery family together, reaching as many people as possible in the UK to tell this story.

3 Deliver a refreshed National Lottery Awards campaign.

4 Build on key moments of family activity, especially Track to Tokyo.

5 Be a centre of excellence for One National Lottery - embedding it into every family wide campaign.

A Vision for the Future: NLPU Strategic Framework 2021-23

(see Annex A page 16)

of campaigns

2021-23.

There were several key recommendations identified from the 25th Birthday Programme in 2019 which the NLPU led on progressing and key areas of priority for future years around data, impact, broadcast to name a few. One of recommendations was to work closer alongside the strategic leads of the all distributors to prepare and share strategic plans earlier to ensure the family can unite behind campaign activity.

In response, the NLPU developed a Strategic Framework for the medium term (next 3 years) and a Strategic Plan for 2021/22, which identifies areas (including possible joint funding opportunities) that The Family can collaborate on, including Government initiatives.

The UK Government have identified that 2021 will be a year focused around regrowth and rebuild and that 2022 will be a year to celebrate the best of Britain, building to the momentum and positivity the country felt in 2012 for The Olympics - we want to ensure our plans are aligned.

The new Framework enables us to clearly determine where to spend time, resource, and campaign investment across the NLPU team and provides a further long-term focus to the work we deliver.

The entire portfolio

delivered by the NLPU is now underpinned by our new Strategic Framework

PART ONE

2020/21 OBJECTIVES & IMPACT

7 CAMPAIGNS 11,314 PIECES OF MEDIA COVERAGE

632.9 MILLION MEDIA REACH

4.6 MILLION OWNED SOCIAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS

87 MILLION POTENTIAL SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN IMPRESSIONS

PART ONE

2020/21 OBJECTIVES & IMPACT

Traditional Media

• The NLPU achieved a total of 11,314 media clippings (up from 7,046 in 2019/20 and up over 842% from 1,201 in 18/19) with a reach of 632.9m (down from 2.42 billion in 2019/20 for the National Lottery’ 25th Birthday campaign but by more than 295%from 160 million in 18/19 across both national and regional titles). The coverage was 99.6% positive, with the other 0.4% being neutral.

• In the previous financial year (2019-20) the National Lottery family marked its 25th Birthday. The Cross- Distributor programme was run on a much smaller scale this year and the decrease in overall media reach can be attributed to a reduction in broadcast coverage due to a reduced amount of activations and the scale of the activations delivered on the whole.

• This year, 84.75% of media items hit key messages (up from 82.5% last year and 83% in 18/19). The first quarter of the year only saw a 46% penetration of key messages. However, for the remaining quarters (two to four), we averaged 85.2% message penetration across 11,185 clippings. This is likely due to the NLPU’s increased focus on improving One National Lottery messaging.

11,314 MEDIA CLIPPINGS

99.6% POSITIVE COVERAGE

84.75% OF MEDIA ITEMS HIT KEY MESSAGES

PART ONE

2020/21 OBJECTIVES & IMPACT

Digital Media

• All NLPU digital channels have been modified to reflect the current situation around COVID-19, including tailoring content on social media and stories being told.

• The COVID-19 response section on the NLPU website has received more 1000 views to date

• On social channels, the NLPU achieved over 4.6 million impressions (which is the number of times your content is shown in a social media feed). This was down from 6.5 million in 2019/20 but up from 2.3 million in 18/19. The NLPU also achieved a reach of 619,200 on its channels, down from 1.4 million in 2019/20 but significantly up from 172,000 in 18/19.

• The ‘potential’ impressions and reach delivered (e.g. content we were tagged in on social channels) in 2020-21 - equates to 87 million impressions with a reach of 12.5 million, down from 158.7 million impressions in 2019-20 and a reach of 23.9 million

• The reduction in overall impressions and reach on our social channels this year is again directly attributed to the reduced volume of the campaigns delivered in comparison with the TNL’s 25th Birthday celebrations during 2019-20 which was one of the largest campaigns delivered in the National Lottery family’s history. The figures for 20-21 still demonstrate an impressive level of reach and impressions across our social channels, which remains an area of continuous growth for the NLPU.

• The NLPU digital team have a robust content strategy in place to produce engaging public facing assets throughout the year, working effectively with the National Lottery family across all channels to deliver comprehensive results.

The NLPU’s external impact has contributed to the following outcomes for The National Lottery (TNL):

• 65.5% of people agreeing that The National Lottery (TNL) supports meaningful causes (63.5% in 19/20 and 63.4% in 18/19)

• 80.3% of people agree that TNL supports good causes (80.2.% in 19/20 and 79.8% in 18/19)

• Overall brand positivity is 47.5% (45.1% in 19/20 and 42.1% in 18/19)

• 28% of people agreeing TNL benefits their local area (26% in 19/20 and 27% in 18/19)

4.6M IMPRESSIONS ON SOCIAL CHANNELS

87M ‘POTENTIAL’ IMPRESSIONS ON SOCIAL CHANNELS

65.5% AGREE THAT TNL SUPPORTS MEANINGFUL CAUSES

80.3% AGREE THAT TNL SUPPORTS GOOD CAUSES

28% AGREE THAT TNL SUPPORTS BENEFITS THEIR LOCAL AREA

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

In the weeks prior to official lockdown measures being announced, the NLPU developed contingency plans for all of its 2020/21 campaigns in the event that they would not go ahead or be adversely affected due to the pandemic

Lockdown and social distancing measures had an immediate knock-on effect to certain campaigns such as Track to Tokyo with the postponement of the Olympic and Paralympic games.

The NLPU looked at its entire campaigns portfolio to ensure they were fit for purpose given the current climate and that all campaigns and digital channels were accordingly modified to reflect the current situation and ensure they increased public appreciation of the role of The National Lottery in providing support at this time of crisis.

All NLPU campaigns throughout the year were tailored to provide a pan-National Lottery response and considered the mood of the nation and were adaptable to this evolving mood.

As the National Lottery family began to distribute emergency funds to projects across the country, the NLPU worked with each distributor to support and amplify the pan-National Lottery message throughout. This included:

• Providing a clear set of COVID-19 key messages for all the National Lottery family to include and use across all their media channels and when developing media activities.

• Developing and delivering key media moments which all distributors could support.

• Establishing toolkits/online hub for assets for distributors for each campaign and grant beneficiary- including press releases, media lists and example social media posts; and

• Identifying themes and stories for campaigns with a digital focus at the forefront.

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Announcing the roll out of £600 million to tackle the impact of COVID-19 – April 2020

41 PIECES OF MEDIA COVERAGE WITH A REACH OF 10 MILLION SOCIAL POSTS HAD

REACH OF 31,000 ON SOCIAL CHANNELS

Working with the entire National Lottery family, in April 2020, the NLPU led on a multi-channel campaign to announce the roll out of up to £600 million in re-purposed National Lottery funding across the UK, to support charities and organisations affected by the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

3 TIMES AS MUCH ENGAGEMENT ON THEM AS ANY OTHER POST IN APRIL 2020

This was the first phase of the pan-lottery response to COVID-19 and the NLPU set about telling a collective story with the National Lottery at the forefront which highlighted the combined COVID-19 relief fundsamounting to up to £600m.

The NLPU worked effectively with the National Lottery operator, Camelot, in the selling in the story to the media and the £600 million news angle was bolstered by regional releases and examples of projects across the UK which had received National Lottery funding prior to COVID-19, and were doing inspirational work adapting to the crisis. The media announcements were further strengthened with the support of the Chair of The National Lottery Board and Oliver Dowden, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

The response to the launch was positive, and whilst this was a reactive campaign and no formal KPIs were set, the media coverage achieved on a national and regional level was strong, especially when considering the strength of news agenda around the crisis at this time. National coverage was secured online and in print in the Daily Express and the Independent / i News.

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

The Good News Bulletin with Joe Wilkinson – July 2020

5 FILMS

311.1K

VIDEO VIEWS

(surpassing KPI of 100k views)

5.1M DIGITAL IMPRESSIONS FOR #TNLGOODNEWS

(surpassing KPI of 4 million)

#TNL GOOD NEWS

51 PIECES OF STRONGLY MESSAGED MEDIA COVERAGE with a reach of 8.82 million

STRONG MESSAGE

In July 2020, the NLPU launched the National Lottery’s Good News Bulletin, a predominantly digital pilot campaign on behalf of National Lottery good causes, which ran for five weeks.

Renowned comedian Joe Wilkinson hosted the weekly video series which provided a roundup of feel-good stories about inspirational National Lottery funded projects from across the UK that were supporting communities through the crisis. Each video featured a ‘surprise and delight’ element, with relevant celebrities, including Radio 1 DJ Clara Amfo and comedian Rhod Gilbert, surprising project members with video calls and thanking them for their work during this challenging time.

The bulletins tied in the £600 million COVID-19 announcement figure and related key messages as a thread throughout the video series, providing cohesion for our COVID-19 related campaigns and strong National Lottery messaging.

The Good News Bulletin was hosted on the NLPU’s social channels and was shared by the majority of distributors. Joe Wilkinson also shared 4/5 episodes on his Twitter account.

Whilst the campaign was digitally focussed, there was also a PR element, using both Joe Wilkinson and the projects featured to tell the story in the media. Joe Wilkinson fronting the Good News Bulletin allowed the campaign to surpass its traditional media KPIs with strongly messaged coverage including BBC Radio 2 and The Metro.

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Thanks a Billion: The National Lottery response to the pandemic exceeds £1 billion – March 2021

March 2021 marked one year since the UK first went into lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

1,188 PIECES OF MEDIA COVERAGE WITH A REACH OF 31.6 MILLION

In collaboration with the entire National Lottery family and DCMS, the NLPU officially announced how more than £1 Billion of National Lottery funding during the last financial year has helped projects in the UK most impacted by the Coronavirus, and supported some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

An UK-wide release and 30 regional variations of the release were produced and issued to the media, featuring case studies and images of projects from each of the regions and nations. The announcement was supported with a number of bespoke digital assets to accompany the story, including a film produced in-house by the NLPU digital team and an infographic produced with the support of Camelot. The film produced by the NLPU was featured in most of the online coverage.

6.1M POTENTIAL IMPRESSIONS FOR #THANKSTOYOU USED AS PART OF DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

83,000 DIGITAL IMPRESSIONS GENERATED BY NLPU PRODUCED FILM DIGITAL REACH OF 2.1M

The media announcements were further strengthened with quotes included by the Chair of The National Lottery Board and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden. In addition, the NLPU worked with DCMS to arrange virtual visits for UK Government Ministers with some of the projects featured. This included an online visit for the Minister for Civil Society, Baroness Barran, with the Beer Men’s Shed project in Devon. The visit was shared on the social channels of the Minister, DCMS and the project itself.

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC National Lottery Awards 2020

RECORD-BREAKING

5,000 NOMINATIONS

731 PIECES OF POSITIVE TRADITIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE

16.8M DIGITAL IMPRESSIONS

1M VIEWS FOR DIGITAL FILMS PRODUCED WITH DIGITAL PARTNERS

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

In line with all of our other campaigns, the 2020 National Lottery Awards were forced to adapt to the changing and challenging circumstances.

As a result of the ongoing pandemic, the launch was delayed until the summer of 2020. Moreover, the format was altered to better reflect the mood and appetite of the nation. Rather than projects, the National Lottery Awards focussed their attention on individuals who had stepped up in their community during this difficult period. This change in procedure resulted in a record number of nominations for the Awards – almost 5,000 entries were received compared to the 600-700 in other years.

In addition, the usual public vote element was abandoned and an expert panel made up of representatives of the National Lottery family; including Camelot, National Lottery distributors, DCMS and external partners chose the winners of the seven categories.

The 2020 National Lottery Awards was the first since the ending of the broadcast arrangement with the BBC, meaning there was no televised coverage this year. In mitigation, media partnerships were struck with Reach Plc for key points in the campaign calendar with their titles including the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Star covering the entry and winners’ phases. In addition, digital partnerships were put in place with LadBible, Huffington Post and Brave Bison to showcase the stories of the winners. Views of these films totalled more than 1 million.

The media coverage exceeded the amount achieved (706) for the 25th Birthday National Lottery Awards, which was helped by the media partnership with Reach Plc. However, we were down digital impressions in comparison to 2019, largely due to the absence of a public vote and a television show.

National Lottery talent ambassadors Rachel Riley and Joanna Page lent their support for editorial pieces while others such as celebrity chef Matt Tebbutt, television presenter Ranj Sing, former world boxing champion David Haye and influencer Saffron Barker participated in announcing the winners either through virtual messages or attending media events.

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Always On

An area of growth for the NLPU this year, which helped increase the numbers of media coverage achieved, is the Always On element of our work.

In line with the strategic objectives of the NLPU and set out in our framework, the Always On element enables the team to review and flex its activities to respond to changing external conditions throughout the year and support key calendar moments.

Through Always On, the NLPU can help generate responsive, proactive and opportunistic content for the National Lottery family. This includes developing and producing content around human interest stories, key awareness dates, stories that have a UK-wide potential and reach, specific topical themes, reacting to current media trends and news, being innovative, and working across the family.

The NLPU is proactively encouraging distributors to get in touch with our team with their ideas / suggestions.

Always On campaign highlights:

Loughborough Bell Foundry

In the build-up to Christmas 2020, the NLPU worked with the National Lottery Heritage Fund to promote the story around the £3.45 million awarded to save the historic John Taylor & Co bellfounder in Loughborough, which was at risk of permanent closure.

The bells that can be heard in The Pogues and Kirsty McColl’s Fairytale of New York were cast at the foundry, for St Thomas’s Church, in Fifth Avenue, New York, as were those used for the AC/DC track Hells Bells.

Using the theme ‘Let the Bells Ring out for Christmas’, the NLPU issued an UK-wide announcement which featured links to famous bells the foundry had forged around the UK and the World.

Results:

• 32 pieces of media coverage UK-wide with a reach of over 36.1 million, with highlights including a feature on BBC News online.

• 2.5K digital impressions on NLPU social channels

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

National Service Remembered

Remembering 60 years since National Service ended in the UK, the NLPU worked alongside the Same but Different charity to promote its National Service Remembered project and capture an important period of the country’s cultural history through the eyes of the men who were conscripted into and served in the British Armed forces. 27 news releases / features were issued including veterans from various parts of the UK.

Results:

• 1,058 pieces of traditional media coverage with a reach of 33.2 million. Highlights include BBC News, Daily Express, The Sun, and i News.

• On social media, the National Service Remembered video saw 3.4k impressions, whilst The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s tweet saw 322.2k potential impressions - amplified by DCMS sharing the post.

The Mother’s Day Podcast Series‘It Takes a Village’ (10th, 11th, 12th March)

The NLPU chose parenting podcaster and celebrity presenter, Anna Williamson, to host its first ever Podcast series as part of a test and learn pilot project. Three episodes were created under the following themes for Mother’s Day: poverty (baby banks), grieving (miscarriage and baby loss) and mental health.

Each episode went live on our channels, Anna Williamson’s social channels and were available to stream via Spotify, iTunes and Google Podcasts daily. Media interviews with Anna Williamson were also offered and the stories around the podcasts were converted into news content and sold into regional, national, broadcast, print and online media throughout the UK.

Results:

• 423 pieces of media coverage, with a reach of 12.3M including the Daily Express online

• Over 150 Podcast downloads (with listens for 1 minute or over), and a completion rate of approximately 70%.

1,058 PIECES OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE

3.4K IMPRESSIONS OF THE NATIONAL SERVICE REMEMBERED VIDEO

423 PIECES OF MEDIA COVERAGE

150+ PODCAST DOWNLOADS

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Track to Tokyo

No one does more than National Lottery players to support elite athletes - they are the single biggest factor behind the phenomenal success of Team GB and Paralympics GB over the past 25 years.

3,139 TRADITIONAL MEDIA CLIPPINGS WITH A REACH OF 147 MILLION

11.9M DIGITAL IMPRESSIONS

419K VIEWS FOR A VIDEO SERIES PRODUCED WITH A VIRAL CHANNEL TARGETING 18-35-YEAR-OLDS

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

In early 2020 plans were advanced for a campaign focused on telling the story of the impact of The National Lottery on sporting success. However, with the postponement of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, the NLPU had to refocus its plans for the campaign.

With many partnerships already in place and plenty of media appetite for athlete content, the NLPU chose to enhance the activity over a longer period rather than delay the campaign for another year. We saw an opportunity to mark key milestone moments ahead of the postponed games, through both traditional and social media, as well as starting to build a drumbeat of coverage through athlete interviews. The objective remained the same: to build understanding and positive awareness amongst National Lottery players in the role their funding plays in preparing our athletes for Tokyo.

Working in close partnership with UK Sport, we developed a new timeline to mark one year to go to the Olympics and Paralympics, followed by a spike of activity around the 300 days to go to the Games mark.

In the weeks around the ‘One Year to Go’ Olympic landmark in July and ‘One Year to Go’ Paralympic landmark in August, we saw our media syndication partner, Sportsbeat, successfully place thousands of well messaged media articles in national and regional media across the UK. There was also strong support on social from Olympic and Paralympic athletes, TNL sports distributors, National Governing Bodies of Sport and DCMS.

At the 300 days to go landmark in September/ October, our two week-long partnership with Metro news, featuring ‘ones-to-watch’ athletes, launched. In addition, we placed media interviews with a selection of athletes featured in a range of national, regional and broadcast media throughout the period.

Coming into 2021 and with reassurances that the Games would go ahead, the NLPU has continued to ensure a steady stream of National Lottery messaged coverage across national and regional titles from the announcement of the Team GB and Paralympic GB squads.

The traditional and digital media coverage achieved during the 2020-21 financial year puts the NLPU in a prime position to reach its overall KPI for the campaign of 6,300 traditional media hits and 45 million digital impressions by December 2021.

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

‘Dedicated To’ – The Cross-Distributor Programme 2020

182.9M PEOPLE REACHED THROUGH TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA

4,221 PIECES OF MEDIA COVERAGE WITH A REACH OF 161.8M

In November 2020, the National Lottery family, led by the NLPU, delivered a campaign dedicated to those people from National Lottery funded projects whose actions made a positive difference to others in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Aligning with the anniversary of the first National Lottery draw (19 November), the ‘Dedicated To’ campaign highlighted stories and celebrated people who helped others through acts of community, passion for the arts, solidarity in sport and protecting a shared heritage.

COVERAGE REACHED 80% OF ALL UK ADULTS

219.4M DIGITAL IMPRESSIONS ACROSS ALL SOCIAL CHANNELS

#THANKSTOYOU AND #NATIONALLOTTERY BOTH TRENDED ON TWITTER

PART TWO

THE NATIONAL LOTTERY’S RESPONSE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

Six activations were delivered in total, focussing on the main areas of National Lottery funding:

1 Community - 12 bespoke benches, dedicated to our community heroes, designed by Jay Blades from the Repair Shop, were placed across the UK

2 Arts - Photographer Chris Floyd created digital portraits of celebrated individuals in the arts which were exhibited digitally (and physically where restrictions allowed) at high-profile galleries from across the country

3 Sports - A series of surprising dedications across the UK from iconic sporting people and venues formed the heart of the activation to honour local community grassroots sports champions

4 Heritage - The images of eight individuals, who dedicated themselves to supporting heritage projects across the UK, were projected on the stones of Stonehenge, with well-known heritage celebrity, Tony Robinson, supporting the activity

5 Cross Fingers Selfie - On 19th November, we asked the whole National Lottery Family and the projects it supports to come together again on social media and cross their fingers to say thank you to National Lottery players

6 Volunteering - Our PR activity culminated on the Birthday with a day dedicated to volunteering and civic participation, by providing people with the opportunities and inspiration to get involved in helping out in their communities.

Thousands of pieces of high quality national, regional, and local coverage were secured with traditional media highlights including stories across The Times, The Guardian, The Lorraine Show, Daily Mirror, The Mail Online, The One Show, UTV News, ITV Wales, The Scottish Sun, and many other regional titles.

The NLPU surpassed its KPIs for social media, demonstrating the power of all the family working together to provide one consolidated deliverable. Collectively across the whole PR programme including traditional media and social, more than 182.9 million people were reached.

PART THREE FINANCIAL PROFILE

The NLPU Management Board determines the budget on an annual basis. This is usually £2 million (including VAT) and can go up to a maximum of £3m if required. Camelot is liable for one third of the budget (up to £1 million inclusive of VAT). The remaining two thirds is deducted from the contribution payable to the Secretary of State under Camelot’s Section 5 Licence. The day to day management of the budget is delegated to the Director of the NLPU.

For most of 2020-21, the NLPU was operating against a revised budget of £1.9m to take into account the 2019/20 overspend. In a year that saw much of the NLPU’s campaign activity modified or postponed due to the pandemic, much of the budget was repurposed towards other ‘reactive’ campaign work around emergency funding or towards contracts for postponed activity to take place in 2021-22.

The overspend was since agreed to be written off by Camelot in March 2021, which meant the budgeted reverted back to the original £2.0m. This is a key driver of the £240k underspend.

INCOME: £2,000,000

EXPENDITURE: £1,759,690

UNDERSPEND: £240,310

CROSS DISTRIBUTOR PROGRAMME: £667,432

CHANNELS: £94,636

NATIONAL LOTTERY AWARDS: £106,155

TRACK TO TOKYO: £104,600

STAFFING, PEOPLE AND OPERATIONAL COSTS:

£786,879

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2021/22 Objectives

• To increase awareness of the breadth, scale and impact of National Lottery funding across the UK.

• To promote the values of The National Lottery and increase positivity towards the good causes The National Lottery supports at a local and national level.

• To reach as many people as possible in the UK in telling that story.

• To champion One National Lottery best practice across The National Lottery family.

Environment Campaign

In April 2021, the NLPU will launch the Cross-Family Environment campaign which will run for 5 days, culminating on Friday 23rd April. This will be the first phase of work to build the National Lottery’s credentials in the climate change landscape and showcase the impact of investment in this area.

To launch the campaign, the NLPU will announce that The National Lottery has contributed £2.2 billion to environmental good causes in the last decade (20102020). In order to generate a strong PR story for this announcement, we will work with a consumer research agency to create a newsworthy headline.

Naturalist Chris Packham will be the lead spokesperson for the campaign and will provide a credible voice to a cause he holds so close to his heart. He has already agreed to front a media day.

Five films fronted by the comedian Rosie Ramsey will be released every day of the campaign, showcasing brilliant National Lottery-funded projects that have been working to make their communities greener. The films will be shared on National Lottery Good Causes social channels and via Rosie Ramsey’s Instagram account(800K followers).

The NLPU will also work with distributors, beneficiaries, athletes and players unified in making a #PlanetaryPromise on social media throughout the week. All distributors have been approached to share either the press release or a video or their #PlanetaryPromise during the week.

The second phase of the campaign will get underway in the lead up to the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on. 1 – 12 November 2021. We are working alongside National Lottery family to explore ways of achieving cut through during the summit.

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FUTURE PART FOUR

THE

Open Week and Cinema Weekend 2021 and beyond

The annual #ThanksToYou campaign and National Lottery

Cinema Day will be more closely aligned in 2021 going forward. This will create a clearer fluency in the public understanding that within a concentrated period The National Lottery and funded projects want to thank players for their support over the years.

In 2021 The National Lottery Open Week will run from 5 to 13 June, followed by The National Lottery Cinema Weekend on 19 and 20 June.

While the significant impact of COVID-19 on venues continues to be felt and an impact on project registration and visitor redemption figures is expected, after more than a year of restrictions, June is expected to be a period of optimism and reestablishing connections to passion points.

Supported by an appropriate but exciting PR campaign, A Ticket To Your Happy Place, this message will resonate with players and the public –reminding them of the vast range of National Lottery supported places they love and things they enjoy. Thanks to the support of the players, these places are ready to welcome them back safely, and will continue to be there to bring joy and fun.

Looking ahead to 2022 and beyond, the ambition is for these campaigns to run in March as annual calendar moments.

A shift in naming to The National Lottery Open Week followed by The National Lottery Cinema Weekend, as well as alignment on dates will support this.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE PART FOUR

Track to Tokyo 2021-22

From April 2021, the Track to Tokyo campaign will continue to build on the foundations already in place for a multi-channel storytelling focused PR activation reaching a consumer audience.

Through a series of paid and earned traditional media and digital partnerships, the campaign aims to raise positive awareness of National Lottery funding to Olympic and Paralympic sport. Partners in place include Metro, LadBible, JOE.ie and Sportsbeat.

This will be complemented with content creation for National Lottery Good Causes social media channels, as well those of our key stakeholders and the various sports governing bodies and Olympic and Paralympic athletes who have already shown support for our material.

The majority of the Track to Tokyo campaign will go live from July 2021, when public awareness and engagement with the Games is at an all-time high. The NLPU’s storytelling PR lead approach complements plans being developed by the Operator, UK Sport, The British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association to recognise National Lottery players’ crucial role in sporting success.

Looking further ahead into Q4 of 2022, we will be building on the awareness created for the summer games, and delivering a campaign focused around the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympics.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE PART FOUR

The National Lottery Awards 2021

The 2021 National Lottery Awards will launch in April 2021.

Building on the success of the 2020 format, the National Lottery Awards will again seek to honour individuals who have excelled in their community with the help of National Lottery funding. These winners will again be chosen by a panel made up from representatives of The National Lottery family.

However, the public voting element will return to boost the campaign’s digital reach with a new UK-wide National Lottery Project of the Year category. In addition, an online poll will determine the winner of The National Lottery Olympian and Paralympian Awards.

Reach Plc will continue as the media partner for the awards and a digital platform will be sought to amplify the campaign winners on social media.

It is our intention to attempt to return the awards to primetime television and discussions with production agencies and broadcasters will continue throughout the year.

Cross Distributor Programme 2021 and 2022

As set out in our Strategic Framework, we intend to build on the success of the 25th Birthday and the Cross Distributor ‘Dedicated To’ campaign in 2020 and deliver PR campaigns alongside the family in 2021, 2022 and 2023 building towards the 30th Birthday of The National Lottery in 2024.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE PART FOUR

However the challenges remain and, given the context we are all operating in, it’s vital that we ensure our campaigns remain relevant to people and communities we serve as we continue to adjust to a world living with COVID-19. Looking ahead, we need to continue to reinforce the purpose of National Lottery good causes funding and continue to promote projects that embed the voice, needs and opinions of our communities.

We want everyone to talk about and care about Our National Lottery and the NLPU will continue to maintain and strengthen its relationships with governments all around the UK and work closely with the wider National Lottery family to provide greater evidence of the impact the £30 million raised each week for good causes by the National Lottery’ players is making. Although significant progress has been made, there is still much more that can be achieved by aligning our work with Government thinking across the whole of the UK (including the devolved nations).

Highlighting what the National Lottery investment has achieved by telling our ‘data story’ is another area where substantial progress has been made in the last year, but the NLPU and the wider National Lottery family realise that this can be improved even further in future.

Our digital offer and ability to appeal to younger audiences also needs to be strengthened and we need to ensure we have better social media data sets to communicate and build external influence and support in this area.

We have advanced our connections with the National Lottery operator to determine how exactly our performance impacts on the overall macro measures of brand positivity. We are working more strategically and tactically across the whole family and this has improved our ability to tell bigger, better stories, especially aligning with Camelot to combine earned media alongside paid for media partnerships.

DCMS have a strong interest in ensuring that the One National Lottery approach is a success and there is now a strong drive and appetite for aligned strategic planning across the whole family. The NLPU is committed to being a centre of excellence for One National Lottery and the new Strategic Framework clearly identifies areas (including possible joint funding opportunities) that The Family can collaborate on, including Government initiatives.

As part of the Strategic Framework, The NLPU and Communications Directors across the family have formulated short term and long-term planning grid protocols that identify areas of activity that the whole family can get behind, whether that be campaigns, announcements or other areas of activity such as impact data, research and evaluation.

The NLPU will continue to ensure all parts of the family promote a shared National Lottery brand which is embedded in every family wide campaign and the wider culture.

We have learnt so much in the last year – from how we can increase our reach through our digital footprint, through to the importance of staying connected and being adaptable to major change.

APPENDIX THE NLPU STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK 2021-23

MISSION

The National Lottery Promotions Unit (NLPU) raises positive public awareness of National Lottery funding, thereby contributing to the overall brand health of The National Lottery. Through storytelling we demonstrate where NL funding has been delivered and showcase the impact across the UK.

VISION

By 2023, working alongside the whole NL family we will showcase the extraordinary positive impact Good Causes funding has across every corner of the UK, and increase overall levels of consideration to play.

OBJECTIVES

By 2023, Increase awareness of the breadth, scale and impact of National Lottery funding across the UK. To promote the values of The National Lottery and increase positivity towards the good causes The National Lottery supports at a local and national level. Increase positivity towards the good causes The National Lottery supports at a local and national level. To reach as many people as possible in the UK in telling that story. To champion One National Lottery best practice across The National Lottery family.

GUIDING ONE NATIONAL LOTTERY PRINCIPLES OF NLPU

INTERNAL & EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

INCLUSIVE – DIVERSE – POSITIVE – TRUSTWORTHY – SOLUTION FOCUSED – ONL – CREATIVE

LDB’S – NL PROJECTS – GAM COMM – DCMS – NLPU MGT BOARD - OPERATORNL PLAYERS – MEDIA – NON PLAYER CONSUMERS – WIDER GOVERNMENT – DEVOLVED GOVS

STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES STRATEGIC PLANNING CAMPAIGNS CROSS FAMILY THEMATIC ACTIVITY DIGITAL BROADCAST DATA, RESEARCH & INSIGHT & EVAL

NLPU business as usual activity to be delivered during this period

STRATEGIC THEMES AND PRIORITIES 202123

Strategic Framework and Plans 2021-23

Further develop family planning cycles (working with Strat Directors)

Preparing for 4NL

Longer term procurement exercise for CDP work

The National Lottery Awards

Sports campaigns including: Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2021, The  Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, Paris 2024 Olympics

Cross Distributor Programme and Thanks To You Environment

Queens Platinum Jubilee 2022 and Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

Young People (18-25) & Skills

The Festival of Great Britain and NI 2022

Delivering Digital Strategy

Supporting Digital campaigns

Strengthen relationships with digital contacts across family

Deliver key broadcast NL moments for the family

Identifying content across the family to work on potential treatments

Execution of longer term broadcast strategy

One National Lottery Media Analysis

Cross family data analysis of good cause funding

DMCS Lottery Grants Database

Strengthen NLPU role in evidence led consumer insight

BRAND POSITIONING & AMBASSADORS

Longer term, tailored recruitment of celebrities who align to TNL good cause projects and funding for consistent low-cost activity, to complement large scale, paid, celebrity campaign work

One National Lottery branding & Internal communications

APPENDIX

BUSINESS AS USUAL ACTIVITY 2021-23

• Champions of One National Lottery – Further embed One National Lottery within the NL family by sharing best practice and developing and sharing assets, including;

• Stakeholder Management across the family

• Strategic Communications Planner (Trello)

• One National Lottery Family Media analysis (DCMS)

• Support family campaigns

• Delivery of ‘always on’ content (for example Health and Wellbeing) for digital and placement of stories across traditional media.

• Storytelling – NLPU will continue to adopt a storytelling approach to National Lottery case studies to amplify good cause messaging for the whole family to tell across their channels through the lens of the pandemic recovery.

• Data and Insight – NLPU will continue to deliver The National Lottery Index but also investigate opportunities to develop intelligence gathering on impact of National Lottery funding.

APPENDIX THE NLPU STRATEGIC PLAN 2021/22

1. To increase awareness of the breadth, scale and impact of National Lottery funding across the UK.

OBJECTIVES

2. To promote the values of The National Lottery and increase positivity towards the good causes The National Lottery supports at a local and national level.

3. To reach as many people as possible in the UK in telling that story.

4. To champion One National Lottery best practice across The National Lottery family.

‘Always on’ content throughout the year to support key calender moments

Always on Contentreacting to calendar events- digital and traditional media

Track To Tokyo - first social media partner content launches

Evaluation of Cross Distributor Activity

Internal audit Strategic Framework and drafting of Strat plan 2022/23 (NLPU) June/July

NLA’s Launch

Environment/ wellbeing

Cross distributor activity: Open Week and National Cinema weekend

Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2021 Games content (pre/ during Games time)

Broadcast planning and development for NLA TV Show

NLA’s: Announce the finalists

Digital Strategy delivery

Cross distributor activity (Oct/Nov)

NLA Winner Reveals / TV show is broadcast

Consultation with family on annual Strategic Plan for 2022/23. Draft plan presented to Mgt Board for approval in Dec.

Cross distributor activity around the theme of Young People & Skills

Broadcast –develop proposals for next financial year 2022/23

Open Week 2022