UK Lotto and YouTube: A Match Made in Heaven?

Millions of people around the world use YouTube ever day for entertainment. They search for and watch videos of animals doing funny tricks, news on their favorite celebrities and clips from upcoming movies and television shows. Camelot, the company in charge of the United Kingdom’s National Lottery, hopes that people will soon to turn to YouTube for its newest competition.

You Tube Logo

Just a few days ago, Camelot announced that it would offer its newest competition online. Camelot recently released new commercials that showed people singing along to the song “Ooh-wakka-doo-wakka-day.” Created by Gilbert O’Sullivan, the song has a number of fans, and even those who think they don’t know the song stop and think twice as soon as they hear the melody. To gain even more attention for the song, the company introduced its newest competition during the hit television series “The X-Factor.”

Started by music and television producer Simon Cowell, “The X-Factor” is one of the most popular shows on British television. The competition show draws huge ratings every week, and nearly every person watching that recent episode had the chance to view the new campaign. Abbot Mead Vickers, who works for the advertising company BBDO, served as the brains behind the competition, and Mead Vickers hopes that people will follow the competition online.

The television ads show hundreds of regular everyday people breaking out into the song while going about their day. According to Camelot, the company wants to show the lighter side of living and working in the UK. Those ads also serve to alert those playing the Lotto of new changes to the system. The Lotto will now come with a different price, more chances to win prizes and more levels. Players with have even more ways to win thanks to the new game. Camelot also announced that Lotto players could follow the ads and its new online competition on YouTube.

The National Lottery now has its own channel on YouTube, which lets people watch the videos whether or not they have a YouTube account. Users can make their own videos and upload the videos to the website, and others can vote on which video is the best. The top video performers will walk away from the competition with a £20,000 prize. Camelot spent more than £15 million on the new advertising campaign and competition, but it hopes that the money it spent will encourage more people to try their hand at the National Lottery.