FBC lottery promo hits PR jackpot

INDIA’S transit system is used by 24 million people every day, but 41% of them don’t pay. An inventive promotion that turned train tickets into lottery tickets to tackle that problem has won the 2025 Cannes Lions PR Grand Prix.

Jury President Tom Beckman

“This is the best lottery promotion activation I’ve ever seen,”

‘Lucky Yatra’ was the work of FBC India, Mumbai, for Indian Railways. Sparked by the fact that Indians spend $33bn on lottery tickets every year, it used the unique sale number on every train ticket for the basis of a promo whose prizes matched the traditional lottery.

Launched in 24 stations across India, the new lottery offered $1.4m in prizes, but generated an additional $685m in train-ticket sales — money that could be reinvested in the railways.

“It was a real solution to a real problem. It was a type of solution that can only come from our industry,” said Jury President Tom Beckman, global chief creative officer at Weber Shandwick.

“This is the best lottery promotion activation I’ve ever seen,” he added. “Don’t put this idea down just because you’ve seen a lottery promotion before. This is something I will show to all of my clients.” Beckman said that this year’s Jury united around a key principle when judging entries. “We were looking for work that was designed for the jungle and not for the zoo,” he said. “We were looking for work that is designed to survive in the real world without artificial support.”

“We were looking for real solutions to real problems,” Beckman added. “The last place we want to end up in is our industry providing fake solutions to real problems. Espe- cially societal problems, because then we’re just a parasite ... not providing any value.”