Tatts Group holds marketing pitch night; awards two winners with $300k budget to deliver projects
Tatts Group, Australia’s largest operator of gaming, lotteries and wagering products, held a marketing innovation pitch event last Wednesday night challenging its marketing teams to pitch an innovative idea for the chance to win $300,000 budget to bring it to life.
Two winners were announced, receiving budgets of $300,000 each to deliver their project. Ben Johnson, brand portfolio manager in Lotteries with his “Winning Happens” idea, and Lotteries brand managers Kristin Fairley and Jessica Dillon for their “Data Generated Numbers”.
Headed up by chief marketing officer (CMO) Megan Magill, 54 submissions were initially received from across the business which were shortlisted to five, who were invited to pitch at the Powerhouse Visy Theatre in Brisbane last Wednesday night.
The finalists pitched their idea to an audience of more than 100 including judges Magill, Tatts Group CEO Robbie Cooke, Simon Ryan CEO of Carat, Mark Green owner of The Monkeys and Phil McDonald managing director of Y&R Group.
Cooke said the initiative was truly groundbreaking among Australian organisations.
Says Cooke: “The default when there’s talk of innovation is always technology, but we think innovation is about more than that, it’s about challenging perceptions, staying ahead of the pack and thinking differently.
“This project demonstrates our focus on innovating across all parts of our business and I’ve been overwhelmed by the quality of ideas that have come out of this process.”
Magill said the Marketing Innovation Program was developed to foster an open-minded culture that explores new ways to approach the challenges facing marketing teams.
Says Magill: “We’re operating in a marketplace that demands innovation from it’s brands, so we need to respond by exploring new ways of marketing our products, and this project has delivered that. Innovation is key to ensuring we maintain our customers attention now and into the future. The winning ideas directly target this challenge and we look forward to seeing them bought to life.”
(Picture 1: Ben Johnson and Robbie Cooke; Picture 2: Jessica Dillon and Kristin Fairley)
6 Comments
Win?
You didn’t win, you just worked for free.
And for ‘Australia’s largest operator of lotteries, gaming and wagering’ who are obviously not short of money.
Clearly a lack of respect for creative from this brand.
@LOL – The people pitching were Tatts staff, if you’d read the article properly. Not their creative agencies.
This wasn’t a “free pitch” in the agency sense, rather an interesting way for staff to develop and share ideas.
So they paid the staff extra for the extra work?
Or maybe they let the staff work late in the office with free pizza or subsidised Thai…
Re: 3.32pm
Ummm what you’ve described sounds like the agency you probably work at.
And let me have a think about this… I’m a 20-something brand manager. I can:
(A) go home and smoke joints after work
(B) go on Facespace for hours
(C) work on a pitch for a marketing idea that will give me access to a $300k budget and mega kudos with my employer.
What do you pick? I thought so.
Let me think about this… I’m a 20 something brand manager. I can:
(A) Acknowledge creative is a specialised field and not part of my role description
(B) Respect my agency and have them provide quality solutions
(C) Plop some 3D text on a rainbow gradient and make the logo bigger
Marketing does not equal creative. If you believe that it does, you’re in trouble. And Seems like a lot of agency hot shots are threatened by the idea that maybe they aren’t the only ones with ideas.