“Diwali ki Safai” — Have you heard of this famous phrase attached to India’s festival of lights, Diwali?
If you have, you may know that people clean homes before Diwali to welcome wealth and good fortune. But here’s food for thought: Businesses do it too!
Diwali is considered one of the most auspicious times for gifting and purchasing. Hence, most brands indulge in festive marketing to clear low-selling products/services or boost underutilised offers.
But wait, there’s more food for thought in our bags. You see, when it comes to festive marketing, the Indian market isn’t as easy to crack as it seems due to its diversity and rich traditions.
Moreover, festivals like Diwali are an emotion for people. Diyas, rangoli, flowers, sweets, lights, crackers etc., symbolise joy and celebration, which salesy offers can’t suffice.
That’s why, Diwali festive marketing as a practice, can’t simply serve the role of a Soan Papdi sweet box—sealed and forwarded year after year.
Instead, it calls for methods to engage customers so that they choose to plunge into the Diwali essence of your brand, and then your sales become a by-product.
How do you do that while standing out from competitors? By adopting gamification.
A technique wherein you can use game-like elements dipped in Diwali spirit to acquire, engage and retain customers.
“Why should I use gamification? How does it work?” one may wonder, and for that, let’s look at five companies where #DiwaliHuiGamify, i.e. they launched gamified Diwali campaigns.
Happy reading, and Happy Diwali!
1. Mx TakaTak Diwali Lucky Draw Contest
Mx TakaTak, a free short video creator app in India, launched a #DiwaliHuiTakaTak campaign, a perfect blend of daily streak gamification along with a celebration of the festival.
They ran a 7-day Diwali lucky draw contest from November 1st to November 7th 2021, wherein they invited users to light diyas by collecting them daily over seven days.
Users were encouraged to log in daily and collect Diwali diyas on the Mx TakaTak app to participate in the lucky draw contest and win prizes.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Mx TakaTak app’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
Mx TakTak’s Diwali campaign offered various rewards, from a ₹10 Free Amazon Voucher for collecting 30 Diyas, a ₹1000 Free Paytm Voucher for 300 Diyas to a GoPro Camera for 700 Diyas.
App users could check in daily for seven days and collect up to 140 Diwali diyas, but to collect more, they had to complete tasks such as referring a friend, linking their phone number, etc.
The iPhone 13 mega prize was given out to only the user with maximum Diwali diyas, while users were rewarded the rest of the prizes on a lucky draw basis by the app.
The #DiwaliHuiTakaTak campaign became a sensation, especially with bloggers promoting it. YouTube alone had 137 videos across 57 channels with over 20k total views.
2. PacificLight Diwali Gamification
PacificLight, a Singapore-based electricity retailer, ran a simple and uncomplicated play-to-win Diwali contest on Facebook to engage users via gamification in October 2019.
“How many blue Diwali candles are there?”, the 8-day contest challenged users to spot the number of blue-coloured Diwali candles correctly and stand a chance to win their limited edition lunchbox.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent PacificLight’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
PacificLight would pick three lucky winners with the correct answer, provided they completed these three simple tasks:
- Like PacificLight Facebook Page
- Comment how many blue Diwali candles they spotted
- Tagged three friends
The contest got a positive response with 25k impressions and 40 tags.
3. Britannica’s Diwali Quiz
Encyclopedia Britannica, a 1768-founded British company that continuously publishes encyclopaedia, has a Games and Quizzes section for their community members.
Under Philosophy and Religion Quizzes, they also have added a Diwali quiz to educate people on Diwali’s history and essence.
The best part is that they’ve made their quiz super engaging. Every time you answer a question correctly, you get rewarded with 500 Points.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Britannica’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
Correct answers give you more points, which helps you top the leaderboard for each quiz.
4.OnePlus’s Diwali Experience Snapchat Lens
We always say gamification isn’t all about points, leaderboards or games. It’s about understanding your product and users and adopting gamification that helps achieve desired goals.
During Diwali 2020, OnePlus, a global technology brand, leveraged this thought by combining its OnePlus 8T product promotion amongst its community with a positive message.
For this, they partnered with Snapchat, an American multimedia instant messaging app, to launch a ‘The Balcony Diwali’ campaign, which had a Lens as a sparkly replica of the OnePlus flagship phones.
Additionally, the lens included hand gestures and ‘wish buttons’ for Diwali wishes such as togetherness, safety, strength, and joy of celebration.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent OnePlus
and Snapchat’s views and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
The OnePlus community members could tap the wish buttons of their choice, turn the camera towards the sky and make hand gestures to release them into the sky as Diwali firecrackers.
OnePlus’s The Balcony Diwali Snapchat Lens reached over 80 million impressions and 14 million Snapchatters in India and increased campaign awareness by 9x.
5. Google Pay Business App Diwali Scratch Card
We’re all aware of Google Pay scratch cards, aren’t we? Scratch a card to find surprise rewards like cashback, brand coupons, discounts, etc.
Every festive season, Google Pay launches creative gamified campaigns for users. During Diwali 2022, Google Pay for Business app launched a ‘Diwali Dhamaka Offer’ for merchants.
Merchants could receive a scratch card worth ₹51 to ₹501 cashback for obtaining a minimum of 3 payments worth ₹21 or more.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Google Pay’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
If a merchant received three or more “unique” transactions of ₹21 through the app QR code, they’d get a cashback scratch card.
For Diwali 2023, Google Play has an ongoing Festival City quest gamification campaign till 20th November, wherein app users complete different challenges in the Diwali map and collect Shaguns.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Google Pay’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
Upon collecting all 501 Shaguns, users can get up to ₹501 INR cashback with a golden gift. Here’s how GPay has designed the Festival City Quest:
- GPay Diwali map has different coloured areas, each denoting a challenge. Users can unlock new challenges like Building Challenge, Rangoli Fest, and Fun Zone as they progress in the quest.
- One gets to start the quest by making a transaction of and collecting ₹11 Welcome Shaguns.
- Transactions, Sponsored brand product/service-related quizzes/games, Mobile recharge, Bill payments, etc, define the Quest challenges.
- Each challenge gives out Shaguns, and upon collecting 501 Shaguns, users get to unlock two scratch cards (up to ₹501 cashback and a special reward sponsored by GPay partners like Redmi Note 12 5G phone).
Light Up Your Business with Gamification
User community, retail, content, technology or payment company – Diwali gamification has been adopted by them all, irrespective of which industry they come from.
And did you notice one common thing about them? All of these companies kept the Diwali essence intact.
Whether Diwali Diyas, history, messaging or Shagun, these companies ensure that they design their gamification strategy with the Diwali spirit, motivating users to engage.
Would you like to explore how you can launch similar gamification campaigns that are fully customisable? Learn more here.
