Breaking down Google’s #StampWaliDiwali Campaign - How Apps can create one for themselves

In 40,000 year old prehistoric caves, archaeologists discovered metal pieces, shells and other bizarre things. This was the first evidence of human being’s need to collect objects.

It’s 2022 now and a man named Jian Yang from Singapore, owns a collection of 6,000 Barbie dolls. Scott Wiener has a collection of 1500+ pizza boxes from more than 100 countries. And a Google executive, John Reznikoff holds a Guinness World Record for the largest collection of celebrity hair.

Think of anything in the world, and there's probably someone who collects it.

This is called Object attachment - an emotional need to amass objects or experiences.

In 2019, Google Pay launched #StampsWaliDiwali campaign. Rules were simple - Collect all 5 Diwali stamps and get a cash reward of ₹251.

However, it wasn't the ₹251 that got users excited.

In this article, I will break down the four psychological reasons that helped Google’s stamps campaign strike a chord with its users.

1. The thrill of the hunt

GPay made it really easy for users to get their first stamp. They simply had to click on ‘Diwali Scanner’ and unlock it.

However, as they progressed, stamps became scarce. Users found it nearly impossible to find the fifth stamp.

GPay announced the ‘Rangoli Bonanza’ where thousands of rangoli stamps were given out at five different time periods during the day. Millions of users would jump on to the App hoping to unlock the stamp.

This behavior is triggered by the Goal-Gradient Effect. It was proposed by Clark Hull in 1932. He says that as people get closer to a reward, they speed up their behavior to achieve their goal faster.

In the case of GPay, as users unlocked third and fourth stamps, their motivation to go the extra mile for the last stamp increased exponentially. They started recharging their friend's phone and sent a small amount to them.

2.