Photo source: AdAge
The New York State lottery has unveiled a new platform titled “Can You Imagine?”, its first major brand campaign in nearly a decade, developed in collaboration with McCann New York. Alongside the campaign, the lottery is introducing a refreshed visual identity, a redesigned logo, and a unified communication system that, for the first time, connects its different lottery products – from Scratch-Off games to Draw Games – under a single creative idea.
Unlike traditional lottery campaigns that mainly rely on portraying massive jackpots, lucky winners, or financial transformation, “Can You Imagine?” shifts the focus toward the psychological moment of anticipation and fantasy. That brief period between purchasing a ticket and checking the results becomes the central creative territory of the entire campaign.
The visuals and films do not portray wealth in a realistic way, but through almost surreal scenes that transform the everyday lives of New Yorkers into stylized micro-fantasies. The Statue of Liberty wears an oversized jacket, a supermarket parking lot becomes a landing space for a colorful helicopter, an ordinary city van turns into a massive sound system, while luxurious and absurd situations appear in completely ordinary urban settings.
The campaign includes two 30-second films directed by the duo Los Pérez from Biscuit Filmworks, with photography by Todd Antony. The production was fully shot in New York using local talent and crews, further reinforcing the campaign’s attempt to emotionally connect the platform with the city’s identity and culture.
Instead of classic lottery communication built around the rational promise of money, the new platform attempts to capture the feeling through which New York has long been constructed as a cultural myth – the idea that anything can happen. That is precisely why the campaign uses not only media space, but also the physical space of the city itself as part of the storytelling.
Large-scale subway installations, oversized OOH placements, and interactive city activations are planned as part of the rollout, all designed to interrupt everyday routines with unexpected visuals and scenes that feel like brief entries into an alternative version of reality.
This approach marks a significant shift for New York Lottery, especially at a time when lottery communication has struggled to attract younger audiences increasingly shaped by entertainment content, gaming aesthetics, and experiences that function as part of internet culture rather than traditional advertising.
As a result, the new platform feels much closer to a fashion editorial, urban fantasy content, or a lifestyle campaign than to conventional state lottery communication. The focus is not on portraying luxury as the final goal, but on the feeling of possibility and escapism itself.
