Indian Railways has rolled out a campaign that aims to curb ticketless travel, albeit in an unusual way.

Conceptualised by FCB India, the campaign ‘Lucky Yatra’ seeks to incentivise travellers with the chance to win a lottery every time they purchase a train ticket - by turning every valid train ticket into a lottery ticket. 

An initiative by Mumbai Division of Central Railways, the campaign - with daily cash prizes to be won - promises commuters that riding right could very well turn into a lucky break for them. 

The ad film showcases the daily commute of people via Mumbai locals, with a voiceover narrating how the public transport serves nearly 7.5 million passengers every day. Despite this, the voiceover noted that the railways loses thousands of crores rupees every year due to ticketless travel.

To tackle this menace, the railways devised a novel solution. It was observed that while some people hesitate to buy a train ticket, they have no qualms about spending money on a lottery ticket. This insight led to the ingenious idea of the ‘lucky ticket’ - where every unique train ticket number could potentially be a winning lottery number, with passengers having valid train tickets standing a chance to win daily and weekly cash prizes ranging from INR 10,000 to INR 50,000.

What we think about it: While it remains to be seen how much money the campaign will save the railways, the ad film hits all the right notes - with an engaging narrative and a friendly voiceover interspersed with Marathi dialogues that lend it a local flavour.