Lottery Prepares to Go With a Winner on Ad Account

Dailey & Associates seems to have won the lottery--again.

The Los Angeles ad agency, which has created California Lottery ads for the past three years, was all but handed the $50-million annual account again on Wednesday for another four years.

After a competitive review, the lottery staff has recommended the agency to the Lottery Commission--a move that virtually assures that the ad firm will retain the high-profile business. The lottery board will make its final selection next week.

“The decision to stay with Dailey was based on their understanding of the lottery’s challenges as a corporation and the agency’s competitive cost proposal,” said Susan Clark, director of lottery’s marketing division.

Dailey may be best known for creating the lottery “Sweet Dreams” campaign that features the song “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” The various ads show snippets of people ranging from truck drivers to executives who fantasize about winning the big prize. The agency says it will stick with that familiar campaign indefinitely.

Retaining the lottery business sent a sigh of relief Wednesday throughout the agency.

“It means we’ve won the biggest account of the year,” said Phillip Joanou, chairman and chief executive of Dailey. “And it also means we haven’t lost the biggest account of the year.” Joanou said that 30 of his ad firm’s employees work on the account. “If you lose an account like that, you have a lot to deal with.”

The review wasn’t prompted by any unhappiness between the lottery and its agency. Rather, because the lottery is a state-run operation, all of its suppliers must be reconsidered every few years. Among the Los Angeles agencies competing for the business were Chiat/Day/Mojo and BBDO. Executives from both firms declined to comment.

Joanou, whose agency also creates flashy ads featuring Lindsay Wagner for the Ford Dealers Advertising Assn. of Southern California, said the lottery has become a much more complex piece of business than it was just a few years ago. That’s because the lottery has added numerous “Scratcher” games in its bid to increase business.

At the same time, the lottery’s most popular game, Lotto, saw somewhat disappointing sales this year. Sales of Lotto tickets in 1989 were “a little bit flat,” said Carolyn Walker, a spokeswoman in Sacramento for the lottery.

One of Dailey’s key challenges is to create ads that will improve those sales. “There are a lot of new ads in the works,” said Joanou. “We’re full of joy to be doing them again--and full of relief.”