The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is differentiating its “Cash For Life” instant lottery with a “thousandaire” flex, embracing more everyday lifestyle benefits than the ones normally associated with bigger prizes.

Taxi’s latest campaign work for OLG shines the spotlight on The Thousandaires Club, unabashedly acknowledging that $1,000 a week won’t let winners retire early, especially in the current economic climate, but it will certainly let them enjoy fun little perks. These perks are featured in the hero spot, where a young woman in a bar decides to order extra guacamole and a man brags about owning his own sports club, which is just a rec bowling team.

According to OLG, the campaign demonstrates that financial freedom and happiness can be found in making the most of small moments and newfound financial stability.

Frank Macera, ECD for Taxi, says social media is replete with billionaire lifestyle flexes. And while becoming a “thousandaire” doesn’t mean ditching your job and moving away to an exotic island destination, “it really does mean you can say ‘yes’ to small extras,” he says. Creatively, he goes on, it was fun to talk about this kind of financial freedom.

According to Macera, it was interesting to push against aspirational tropes found in movies, TikTok, or even other kinds of lottery games. “It’s a refreshing take,” he says.

The idea of “Thousandaires,” he says, will definitely be incorporated into future campaign work. When compared with the idea of becoming a billionaire, Macera claims there is way more variety in terms of responses that can be generated for what people would do with that money, and as such, more storytelling variety.

According to him, campaign work for “Cash for Life” instant lottery hasn’t been in the market for many years, making now a “fantastic moment for it to come back and be promoted.” People are emerging from the pandemic and are looking at the economy and retirement differently, especially the younger people featured in the hero spot.

The “Cash for Life” audience is split between the 30- to 40-year-old set, as well as seniors. The challenge, Macera says, is cutting through the clutter amidst a seemingly unlimited number of entertainment options. There’s a hero 30-second video on TV, and to play more in the digital space, the brand is doing three cutdowns.

OLG’s “Cash For Life” Thousandaire lifestyle commercials will appear on TV, digital, social, OOH, and OLG-owned channels throughout the coming months.

Media for this campaign was handled by EssenceMediacom.