Behavioral Science For Brands: Leveraging behavioral science in brand marketing. Awarded Campaigns: Lucky Yatra, on how a ticket-lottery turned fare dodgers into paying passengers
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Mar 4, 2026 They unpack a railway campaign that turned ticket numbers into a daily lottery to boost sales. They compare uncertain rewards with fixed discounts and cite experiments where chance-based incentives outperformed guarantees. They explore reframing punishments as opportunities, examples that shifted commuter behavior, when lotteries fail, and ethical alternatives to gambling-style tactics.
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How Lucky Yatra Turned Tickets Into Lottery Entries
- Indian Railways turned the serial number on every ticket into a daily and weekly lottery entry called Lucky Yatra.
- With $1.4M in prizes the campaign generated $685M in ticket revenue and a 34% increase in ticket sales in Mumbai.
Uncertain Rewards Outperform Equivalent Discounts
- Uncertain rewards boost engagement more than equivalent certain discounts.
- Nina Mazar's vending machine study found 43% more purchases when customers had a one-in-three chance to get the snack free vs a guaranteed one-third off.
Flip From Punishment To Possibility To Avoid The Ostrich Effect
- Framing behavior change positively beats shaming and threats because people avoid immediate displeasure.
- George Loewenstein's ostrich effect shows people ignore bad news, so fear-based messaging often backfires.
