The N.C. Education Lottery has selected Mullen Lowe Winston-Salem as its new advertising agency of record to provide creative advertising and media services for the lottery.

Mullen Lowe Winston-Salem, a unit of the Mullen Lowe Group, won the contract during a competitive process. It was one of nine agencies that competed to handle lottery advertising services. The new relationship begins July 1.

“The N.C. Education Lottery raises more than half a billion dollars a year to support important education programs in North Carolina,” said Alice Garland, executive director of the lottery. “That kind of financial performance for any business depends on strong sales, and strong sales come from effective advertising and marketing programs. Mullen Lowe effectively demonstrated to us during the competitive process that it has the ability to create excitement around our games while simultaneously spotlighting the benefits the lottery provides to our state. We believe that with Mullen Lowe’s help the lottery can continue its record of growing sales and earnings every year for North Carolina.”

The agency’s services to the lottery will include traditional and digital creative advertising services, media planning and buying, and it will also provide support to the lottery’s work in marketing, public relations, and social media.

“We’re extremely proud of the insightful and inspired work that we delivered during the agency review process,” said Taylor Bryant, president of Mullen Lowe Winston-Salem. “And we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to apply that same strategic thinking and creativity to develop solutions for the N.C. Education Lottery that will help it continue growing its support for the state education system.”

The agency’s Winston-Salem unit also represents such clients as CSX, Food Lion, Pep Boys and Ulta Beauty. The client list of Mullen Lowe U.S. includes Royal Caribbean, Acura, Google, Zappos and American Greetings.

The lottery currently has sales of about $2 billion a year and can spend up to 1 percent of its revenues annually on advertising, an expected $20 million for fiscal year 2016. Performance audits have found that the lottery operates an effective and efficient advertising program and that it plays a key role in lottery sales. The most recent audit reported that the Education Lottery was the only U.S. lottery to grow both sales and earnings each year for the past eight years.