Black Titanium
New York Lottery
Issue 53 | December 2019
Agency
McCann New York
Creative Team
North American Chief Creative Officer: Eric Silver McCann New York Chief Creative Officers: Sean Bryan, Tom Murphy EVP Executive Creative Director: Mat Bisher VP Group Creative Directors: Jason Ashlock, Dominick Baccollo Creative Directors: Emily Salas, Tyler Gonerka Junior Art Director: Hailey Lawrence Junior Copywriter: Jack McNamara
Production Team
Chief Production Officer: Nathy Aviram VP Executive Producer: Chance Bassett SVP Executive Integrated Music Producer: Eric David Johnson aka DJ Bunny Ears Music Producer: Dan Gross Production Company: Arts & Sciences Music Company: Future Perfect Composers: Joel Simon, Becca Riter, Seamus Kilmartin, Nathanial Morgan, Jason Krebs
Other Credits
EVP Executive Account Director: Scot Beck VP Account Director: Caroline Fuller Account Supervisor: Molly Vossler Account Executives: Ellery Gitkin, Carolyn Martin Assistant Account Executive: Jessica Foster VP Strategy Director: Laura Frank VP Communications Planning Director: Michael Goldstein Project Manager: Michael Gonzalez
Date
October 2019
Background
‘Black Titanium’ could have been the name of any number of things. A high-tech smartphone. A fancy cologne. Even an intense heavy metal band. In fact, ‘Black Titanium’ was a new Scratch-Off Game from the New York Lottery, with a top prize of $10,000,000.
Idea
The campaign idea was to define exactly what Black Titanium was by stating what it wasn’t.
The TV spot imagined what Black Titanium would be like as a heavy metal band. Music company JSM collaborated with the agency to create a Spotify album for the fake Black Titanium band, executing ads disguised as songs that had to be completely legit to the (heavy metal) genre.
Across social executions, the high-jackpot Scratch-Off Game was compared to other items that Black Titanium could be, like a premium credit card or a fancy cologne all while reminding viewers that it wasn’t any of those things. It was a new Scratch-Off Game. And it was big.
Results
Sales of tickets increased 22.5% over the previous scratch card.
Our Thoughts
Brands everywhere are getting knotted up in purpose. And therein lies the pleasure to be taken from this campaign. It’s purposeless.
Just the New York Lottery inviting you to dream about ten million dollars. It’s a campaign executed with such joie de vivre it’s hard not to smile when you listen to the lyrics of the songs on Spotify.
‘It ain’t a hundred or a thousand this time, we took a million and a million again then eight more million to make it ten. Hot cash!’ Speaking as someone who has seen Black Sabbath, Mountain, Deep Purple et al in concert, the sound is beautifully authentic