Shot of a Lifetime

A geographic comparison showed that the counties and demographics in Washington State with the lowest percentage of vaccinations, were also over-indexed for the likelihood to be Lottery players. That made it a perfect, high-reach platform for appealing to those less vaccinated groups.

With 48-hours to deliver a plan, we restricted ourselves to uncontentious past findings and evidence from our files and state data that had already been approved by the Governor’s Office.

We pitched for one large jackpot of $1 million, to make it a no-brainer lead message. The Governor pitched for federal aid, and the million-dollar prize was secured.

We kept it very simple, offering one lucky Washingtonian the chance to win a million dollars - just for getting vaccinated.

The core idea was easy to understand and align with. Like the best incentives, it didn’t try to force anyone to change positions. It gave people a fun and uncontroversial reason to get the shot, instead of waiting to get the shot until 'some other time'.

We also resisted taking the credit. It was a lottery, but it was only branded by the Department of Health; and we designed the campaign to look and feel deliberately unsophisticated, playful, and bright: like a county fairground.