Lottery Commission in hunt for agency to assess marketing plans

The National Lottery Commission (NLC) is to appoint an agency to assess the marketing proposals of the bids for the next lottery licence.

The NLC is using a number of consultancies to assess different aspects of the bids from Camelot, Richard Branson’s People’s Lottery and an unnamed charity consortium.

Accountancy firms Lazards and Neville Russell will examine the financial strengths of the bids, Europe Economics will advise on the overall lottery market, and Hedra will advise on the IT capabilities.

But the commission has not hired a consultancy for marketing so far, though it says it is likely to make an appointment soon. An NLC spokesman says: “We put a tender through the Official Journal of the European Community for a range of consultancies, including marketing, but none offered what we wanted [for marketing], as we were looking for something very specific. We have approached three consultancies and interviewed two.” He says an appointment will be announced this week.

Marketing will be a key issue in determining the licence winner. Camelot says it will significantly increase marketing spend, while the People’s Lottery claims its marketing will be much stronger than Camelot’s.