What it had to solve
Fertility Action campaigns for equitable access to fertility treatment. It needed to expose a hidden inequality — IVF funding decided by postcode — and turn public shock into petition signatures.
The idea
A lottery you can't win: enter your postcode and find out if where you live 'won' you NHS-funded IVF.
How it works
Drawing on the visual cues of lottery advertising, the concept for Ocean's digital screens invited people to enter their postcode and discover if they were one of the 'lucky' winners in the 'Life Changing Lottery', turning a hidden inequality into a shared public experience built to drive petition signatures.
What it did
Won Gold in Ocean Outdoor's 2026 Digital Creative Competition non-profit category, judged by a panel chaired by Graham Fink. Publicis London took the commercial Gold the same night for its Lloyds work — the first agency in 17 years to win both Golds. Winners share a £500,000 prize fund to bring the ideas to life across Ocean's UK estate; Publicis London goes on to the European Grand Prix, announced January 2027.
Background
In the UK, one in six couples face fertility challenges, but whether the NHS funds IVF depends on where you live. For the charity Fertility Action, Publicis London built 'The Life Changing Lottery', an out-of-home concept that borrows the visual language of lottery ads — the flashing, the winners, the life-changing sums — and applies it to the one draw nobody chose to enter: your IVF funding, assigned by postcode.
The mechanic is interactive: passers-by enter their postcode on Ocean Outdoor's digital screens to discover whether they are one of the 'lucky' winners of NHS-funded treatment. The gamble framing makes a hidden, bureaucratic inequality something strangers experience together, and each check funnels toward a petition demanding that starting a family become a right, not a gamble.
The idea won Gold in the non-profit category of Ocean Outdoor's 2026 Digital Creative Competition, judged by 25 industry experts chaired by Graham Fink. The judges said: 'We've all learnt something we probably didn't know, and it gets us to do something about it.' The same night Publicis London took the commercial Gold for its Lloyds Bank 'Overprotective Pet Wear' work — the first time in the competition's 17 years that one agency has won both Golds.
The 2026 winners share a £500,000 prize fund that will be used to build the ideas across Ocean's UK screen portfolio, and Publicis London will carry the win into a European Grand Prix against Gold winners from six other Ocean markets, to be announced in January 2027.
Why it lands
The lottery framing is exact, not decorative: postcode-funded IVF really is a draw rigged by birthplace, so the metaphor carries the argument by itself.
Interactivity converts bystanders into participants — you don't learn about IVF inequality, you check whether you have it, which is a far stickier memory.
Each interaction has a built-in next step (the petition), so the awareness mechanic is wired directly to the charity's campaign goal.
The ocean-scale screen makes the check public, and a result that's unfair feels different when you discover it standing next to strangers.
What you can take
Put the audience's own postcode into the mechanic and a statistic about other people becomes a personal result they can't scroll past.
Since then
As of October 2026 the concept has won its Gold and a share of Ocean Outdoor's £500,000 prize fund, which will be used to bring the winning ideas to life across Ocean's UK portfolio. Publicis London advances to the European Grand Prix against Gold winners from six other markets, due January 2027.
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