The Illinois Lottery Announces New Ad Agency

CHICAGO, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ — The Illinois Lottery announced today that
it has awarded Energy BBDO its $105 million general market advertising
contract.

Energy BBDO, along with Omnicom partners OMD and The Integer Group, will
assist Lottery with strategic planning, media planning and buying, creative
development and production, promotion, Web development and other marketing
communication endeavors.

The Illinois Department of Revenue put out a request for proposals in
September 2008 for the Lottery contract. A committee of eight people evaluated
13 written proposals and through a scoring process determined that six
agencies would progress to the technical presentation. Three of those agencies
proceeded on to the strategic and creative presentation phase. Energy BBDO was
one of the three local agency finalists selected by Lottery representatives in
December 2008. The two other competitors for the bid were Marc USA and JWT.

According to Sarah Cummins, marketing director for the Lottery, it was a
tight competition between three highly-qualified finalists. “Each agency
brought innovative ideas to the table, but we found Energy BBDO to be
best-suited for the Lottery’s needs. We made the decision based on the team’s
enthusiasm, excellent chemistry, strong leadership, and ability to reach out
to Illinoisans in new and creative ways,” she said. “We congratulate Energy
BBDO and look forward to working with the agency on new and innovative
approaches to promote the Lottery.”

The awarded contract has an initial term of two years, with two one-year
renewals possible.

About the Illinois Lottery

Founded in 1974, the Illinois Lottery is a state agency with annual sales
over $2 billion. Since its inception, the Lottery has contributed more than
$14 billion to the state Common School Fund to assist K-12 public schools.
Players must be at least 18 years old. For more information on the Illinois
Lottery please visit our Web site at http://www.illinoislottery.com.

About Energy BBDO

Energy BBDO is part of BBDO Worldwide, the most awarded agency network in
the world. Every day, thousands of BBDOers in 287 offices in 79 countries work
job by job, client by client, to create and deliver the world’s most
compelling commercial content. This year, BBDO was named Network of the Year
at Cannes, winner of The Gunn Report as the world’s most awarded agency
network, winner of The Big Won as the most awarded global agency network
across every marketing communications discipline, and Advertising Network of
the Year by Campaign magazine. Encouragingly, for the future, it is also
Network of the Year in the 8th Annual Young Guns Awards, which recognize the
work of young and emerging creatives.

     Contact:   Madonna Duncan  (312) 255-3142 (office)
                                (773) 960-5829 (cell)
                Laura Lehmann   (312) 475-5901 (office)
                                (773) 226-2392 (cell)

SOURCE Illinois Lottery