Agency picked to vet Lottery plans

The National Lottery Commission has appointed strategy and brand development consultancy Grosvenor to judge the merits of the marketing and game designs of the rival bids to run the next Lottery licence.

Grosvenor was appointed last week after the NLC admitted it had received no suitable responses to a tender in the Official Journal of the European Community. An NLC spokesman says: “Grosvenor’s role is to help us assess the objectives and strategy in the bids. We appointed it because we were impressed with its specialist and team approach.”

The NLC received bids last week from existing operator Camelot in partnership with the Post Office, and Richard Branson’s The People’s Lottery, which promises to give its profits to Good Causes. The NLC will select the winning bid for the next licence, which begins in November 2001, by June.

Grosvenor was founded by joint managing director John Simpson ten years ago after he had worked as marketing director of ad agency Allen Brady Marsh, which was folded into Lowe Group.

The consultancy will help judge the ad plans put forward by WCRS for Camelot and J Walter Thompson for The People’s Lottery. It will also look at player access to games, including distribution and new media.

Simpson says: “We realise [game development and marketing] are critical areas of differentiation, so we have tailored a team of experts with considerable experience to assess the bids.”