The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2018
La Libanaise Des Jeux turns a selfie into a Loto number — Lucky Face Grand Prix
Lebanon's Loto was losing young players, so Impact BBDO turned any selfie into a personal six-digit lottery number — a record sales week followed.
La Libanaise Des Jeux
What it had to solve
Lebanon's national lottery, La Libanaise Des Jeux, saw sales fall by more than 40 percent as young, digital-native players came to see Loto as an outdated product, even though people aged 20–29 were the country's largest demographic. Regulation and red tape made changing the game itself nearly impossible, so the brief was to make the existing draw feel relevant without touching it.
How it works
La Libanaise Des Jeux runs Lebanon's Loto, and its young audience was drifting away: sales had dropped more than 40 percent, and to digital-native millennials — the country's largest age group — the daily ticket ritual felt outdated. The harder constraint was legal: red tape and regulation made changing the game itself nearly impossible.
Impact BBDO Dubai's answer kept the draw untouched and changed how people entered it. A web app built on Microsoft's facial-recognition API mapped any face to a unique six-digit combination compatible with the next draw; players posted a selfie on Instagram or uploaded one on the site, received a customized link, and bought their ticket. Your face literally became your number.
In a single week Loto sold a record 53,138 tickets, reversing three months of decline; website traffic rose 15 percent, impressions passed two million, and coverage on Lebanon's three largest television networks was valued at more than $200,000. The 40th Loeries gave Lucky Face the 2018 Integrated Campaign Grand Prix, and the brand planned to make the mechanic a permanent way to play.
Why it lands
- It solved the real constraint: the draw and its regulation could not change, so the campaign changed the only movable part — how a player chooses a number.
- It used the audience's own culture: selfies and personal branding were already how Lebanese youth expressed identity, so playing the lottery became an act of self-expression.
- The mechanic was compatible by design: a face maps to one of the same six-digit combinations the existing draw already uses, so nothing about the game had to be re-approved.
- Each step generated shareable content: an Instagram selfie, a custom link and a number that is literally you made playing the lottery worth talking about.
What it did
In a single week Loto sold a record 53,138 tickets, reversing a three-month decline; website traffic rose 15 percent, social and local-news impressions passed two million, and coverage on Lebanon's three biggest television networks was valued at more than $200,000. The campaign recorded 94 percent positive sentiment and a 90 percent rise in brand buzz, and won the Integrated Campaign Grand Prix at the 40th Loeries in 2018.
What you can take
When regulation locks the product, change the ritual around it: the draw could not move, so the campaign moved choosing a number into something young players already do — posting their face.
Since then
Lucky Face ran over two Loto draw cycles and produced the lottery's record single-week sales of 53,138 tickets, reversing a three-month decline, with website traffic up 15 percent and more than two million impressions across social media and local news. In August 2018 it won the Integrated Campaign Grand Prix at the 40th Loeries in Durban, alongside a Gold in Media Innovation and a Campaign Gold in Data Driven. The brand's award entry said Lucky Face would become a permanent way to play, with the algorithm licensed to other lotteries as a future revenue stream.
Sources
- Lucky Face — 2019 Winners & Shortlists, Use of Mobile entry
- #Loeries2018: Tres Colacion and Giancarlo Rodas on winning a Grand Prix for 'Lucky Face'
- 40th Loeries Salute the Year's Best Advertising from Africa and the Middle East
- Lucky Face — La Libanaise Des Jeux
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card