Staatsloterij Oudejaarstrekking - Freddie

Staatsloterij marks its iconic New Year’s Eve jackpot with a touching story of the blossoming friendship between a man and his prickly friend.

In this campaign, the love for a helpless hedgehog is what counts. With hedgehogs being extremely cute and popular both on social media and offline, we found a perfect successor in Freddie. A hedgehog so cute, that it’s maybe worth more than our jackpot prize.

We chose not to work with a real hedgehog: cold winter weather posed health risks. So, we worked together with a prop company and a VFX studio to create a prop and virtual version of Freddie. The result was just as cute as a real-life hedgehog (or perhaps even cuter).

The storyline revolves around a man who rescues hedgehog Freddie. The man loses his lottery ticket, and thinks the hedgehog took it. But in the end, it is Freddie who finds it back for him. The outtake of the movie: “Some things are more important than money”.

Staatsloterij has been the lottery of the Netherlands for almost 300 years, with the New Year's Eve draw as the most popular draw since 1992. The New Year's Eve draw is different in size and sentiment from the monthly draws. Many Dutch people play along, and it has become part of our holiday traditions. In 2018, Staatsloterij scored the biggest hit in years in terms of popularity with the campaign ‘Frekkel’. By maintaining the creative strategy, the brief was to at least equal the success Frekkel had.

Jury Feedback

ADVERTISING – FILM / NOMINATION

The jury labeled this film as a Disney movie from the Lowlands. The idea may be a bit too far-fetched, a bit too romantic, but the execution makes it a very successful and cuddly film with a surprising twist to this theme that is emotional and lasts. Staatsloterij succeeds with this film to find a good successor for the ugly dog Frekkel that was successful last year. They have built up a tradition of coming up with exciting movies for this time of year where they show how the love for animals is more important than the love for money, a theme that can count on a lot of support from the Dutch population.

The bar is high when coming up with a New Year's Eve film for the Staatsloterij. And in this case, the bar turned out to be a bit too high for a crowning achievement. The story is a bit too complex and the performance a bit too classic, but nevertheless a well-deserved nomination.