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Lotto New Zealand and DDB create heartwarming friendship for third Imagine installment

Two armoured truck driver friends are the stars of Lotto New Zealand’s latest ad.

Called ‘Armoured Truck, the campaign begins with the men doing normal deliveries chatting about what they would do with the money in the armoured truck if it was theirs.

Then the driver says to his friend “What if we just kept driving? You don’t want to do this all your life” and puts his foot down on the pedal, refusing to listen to his passenger’s requests to drop the money off. 

While it may seem the driver is out of control, with the pair set for jail if caught, he has a surprise for his passenger friend—a winning Lotto ticket—and the rest of the team are in on it.  

The ad was inspired by the true story of a Kiwi man who won $15 million and, honouring a promise made long ago, went halves with his mate. 

The happy tale is the third instalment of the Imagine series, which began with 2015’s ‘Pops’ Gift’, followed by ‘Mum’s Wish’ in 2016. Both stories have a similarly positive and emotional tone and are designed to take the audience beyond the ordinary with pirate ships and treasure hunts.

DDB chief creative officer Damon Stapleton says the new film is his favourite so far, and he’s excited to see how Kiwis react to it.

“The reason the Imagine series has resonated so strongly with Kiwis over the years is because while it presents these fantastical, larger-than-life stories, there’s always a kernel of truth at the heart of it,” says Stapleton.

“In this case, that truth is you want to believe that if you win, you’d be the kind of person who would keep the promise you made. Who would be loyal to your mate and share your good fortune. And I think Kiwis truly are like that.”

Before the campaign’s release, Stapleton told traitor Damien Venuto, former StopPress editor now NZ Herald writer, the new ad saw the consideration of 16 different stories before the true story of a Lotto winner sharing his winnings was settled on.

Stapleton said the agency used its creative licence to spin the story into the exciting heist story.

Emilia Mazur, general manager of corporate communications at Lotto New Zealand, adds Lotto is looking forward to seeing players connect with the latest story.

“As with the previous Imagine instalments, we wanted to produce a film that inspires Kiwis to dream and I think we’ve achieved that. Even though the setting for this film is smaller – it’s two mates in a small truck – the story feels bigger than that. It really draws you in and takes you along for the ride.”

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