National Lottery to Sponsor ITV Shows
Camelot has announced that it will continue to sponsor ITV’S Saturday night entertainment. The continued partnership will see the National Lottery operator sponsor two of the UK TV channel’s most popular shows; “The Masked Singer” and “Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway”. Meanwhile, the government is conducting an inquiry into lottery funding, after claims that Camelot’s contributions to Good Causes are too low.
The National Lottery has agreed to sponsor two of ITV’s most popular Saturday night shows over the festive period. ©Element5 Digital/Pexels
Christmas Entertainment
Camelot, the operator responsible for running the National Lottery, has revealed that it will continue its successful partnership with ITV. It has signed a deal with ITV Commercial to sponsor two of the channel’s flagship Saturday night shows. “The Masked Singer” and “Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway” have become firm favorites amongst UK viewers.
The agreement marks the second year that the National Lottery and ITV have paired up to bring viewers the best in weekend entertainment. The deal will see the National Lottery sponsor “The Masked Singer” and “Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway” every Saturday night for three months, starting from December 25th.
Publicizing the good news, Camelot explained what the partnership will mean for ITV viewers. Last year’s sponsorship featured a special cameo appearance from Stephen Mulhearn, who has in the past hosted ITV’s “The National Lottery Draws”. He surprised a Saturday Night Takeaway fan with a £350,000 funding boost for her National Lottery supported charity.
This year’s collaboration promises to offer even more exciting and life-changing moments. The National Lottery will continue to spread its wholesome brand message; “Amazing things happen when lots of people play a little”. It put its money behind that message earlier this year, when it supported Team GB Olympic and Paralympic athletes through its Good Causes campaign.
The sponsorship deal will also help the National Lottery to raise awareness of all it has to offer and the £30 million it raises every week for Good Causes. Speaking on behalf of Camelot, Chief Marketing Officer Keith Moor spoke about how the lottery operator hopes to reach big audiences and connect the National Lottery with peak entertainment. He added:
“The National Lottery is once again helping to bring amazing entertainment and fun to homes across the UK at primetime on Saturday nights – something that’s in The National Lottery’s DNA given that it has been providing incredible moments of fun and anticipation for its players for over 27 years.”
Continued Partnership
As part of the sponsorship deal, ITV will air an array of unique and heart-warming idents to promote its flagship Christmas schedule. These will be created by Aardman Animations, the UK’s best-loved animation studio responsible for Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run. Aardman previously produced the channel’s Christmas advert for “Dancing on Ice”.
On-air sponsorship, multi-platform activation and a tailor-made licensing package are also included in the terms of the deal. The collaboration between ITV and the National Lottery will be promoted on the ITV Hub, where viewers can watch the channel’s content online, as well as other channels operated by both parties.
A content strategy will be employed to highlight the sponsorship through ITV and the National Lottery’s social media feeds. This strategy will build on the success of the pair’s earlier campaign, which promoted new brand advocates and ran effective fan engagements. Interactive formats like “guess the song”, and competitions for prizes and holiday giveaways also went down well with viewers.
The deal has been welcomed by ITV, which has been collaborating with the National Lottery since it left the BBC after 25 years in 2018. Director of Commercial Sales and Partnerships at ITV, Mark Trinder, spoke about how the deal would help to bring viewers the best entertainment that the channel has to offer. According to Trinder:
“The Masked Singer and Saturday Night Takeaway are two of our most iconic shows and part of millions of people’s Saturdays. I’m delighted to welcome back The National Lottery as our sponsors and look forward to bringing even more entertainment to viewers as part of this partnership.”
The agreement between Camelot and ITV Commercial was negotiated by ad agency Dentsu. Dentsu will continue to manage the three-month sponsorship. Adam & Eve has led the partnership’s creative strategy and approach, while ITV Creative is responsible for production and creative integration of the sponsorship deal.
Masked Singer Characters Unveiled
ITV has already started gearing up for the festive period by unveiling the characters for the upcoming series of “The Masked Singer”. The hotly awaited talent show will return to ITV in January 2022 for its third installment. Its regular panel of celebrity judges, Davina McCall, Rita Ora, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan will also be returning with host Joel Dommett.
The show has become a runaway hit since it first aired in the UK a year ago. A fresh cast of twelve celebrities will don the show’s famously eccentric and elaborate costumes to conceal their identities as they take part in the singing competition. Week by week, the judges will try to guess who’s behind the mask, as a live studio audience votes for their favorite performer.
Previous winners in the UK have included Nicola Roberts as the character Queen Bee and Joss Stone as the unforgettable Sausage. This year the characters competing for the Masked Singer title are; Chandelier, Bagpipes, Lionfish, Doughnuts, Traffic Cone, Panda, Rockhopper, Mushroom, Firework, Poodle, Snow Leopard and Robobunny.
The debut series of the “The Masked Singer” in the UK was sponsored by the National Lottery when it aired last January. The National Lottery recently came under fire after three-time Olympic Gold swimmer Adam Peaty spoke out about the funding that athletes receive from the organization.
Paralympic rower Lauren Rowles and swimmer Ellie Robinson were amongst the Team GB athletes that gave their accounts of support they had received from the National Lottery’s Good Causes to a DCMS Select Committee. Speaking to the “What Next for the National Lottery” panel, the witnesses described the accessibility barriers that they had encountered when applying for funding.
Peaty told the panel that while athletes are proud to fly the flag and represent the UK, they cannot pay the bills with patriotism. DCMS member Kevin Brennan was inclined to agree, stating that while Camelot’s profits had increased by 122%, its funding for Good Causes had only increased by 2% between 2009 and 2016.
