The Sun & The National Lottery: Who Cares Wins

Client: The National Lottery

The Sun’s ‘Who Cares Wins’ awards, now in its sixth year, asked The Sun’s readers to nominate their health heroes. 2023 marked the 75th anniversary of the NHS, so the newspaper determined this year’s event was going to be bigger and better than ever. The awards were hosted by Davina McCall and attended by over 400 guests, including Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, amongst other high profile guests.

Given The National Lottery had committed £1.2m to sponsoring the event, The Sun wanted to ensure it offered visibility and an enhanced association with the awards in viewers’ minds. The newspaper therefore ensured that The National Lottery logo was incorporated within the lockup logo for the event and featured prominently across all event branding and signage around the venue, plus on stage, on the trophies, within the event brochures and within the special editorial supplement distributed at the end of the event. The Sun also ran an advertising campaign across The Sun’s print, digital and social platforms to support The National Lottery’s sponsorship, including an editorial cover wrap, 7 pages of editorial and a 4-page pull-out unveiling the full list of nominees, and more.

The strong results included over half of The Sun’s audience recalling the campaign, of those who could recall 2+ elements taking some action as a result, and overall positivity towards the National Lottery higher amongst Sun readers/followers.