Five major marketing tactics behind Alipay’s lucky draw, a must-read for SEM!

The screen was flooded with messages! I believe everyone has participated in Alipay’s Five Blessings Collection activity. But why do so many people still go to collect blessings even though they know they won’t get much money? Take the Five Blessings Collection activities in the past two years.

In the first year, due to the low acquisition rate of Jingyefu, many users failed to get it, and thus complained repeatedly;

In the second year, because the chances of winning were too high, each user only received a few yuan or even a few cents, which led to a lot of complaints.

In the third year, which is this year, on the one hand, he was complaining that he didn’t get much money, but on the other hand, his body was honestly praying for blessings.

Is the temptation of 500 million really that great? No, in fact, there are rules to follow. SEMers, take note of this in your little notebooks, because whether you will get a promotion and a raise next year may depend on it.

1. In line with the overall environment

What kind of feeling do customs and habits generally give people during the New Year? During the New Year, we will hang couplets and paste the word "Fu", which means a good year with good fortune. That is to say, we will be surrounded by various "Fu" characters or couplets with the character "Fu".
Alipay just took advantage of this environment. On the one hand, the meaning of the word "Fu" is used to stimulate users' desire to participate in activities; on the other hand, the word "Fu" can be seen everywhere to continuously encourage users to participate in activities.

The overall environment also essentially explains why Alipay’s “Collect Five Blessings” is so popular.

The Apple advertisement "Three Minutes" that was all over the screen a few days ago took advantage of the Spring Festival travel rush and created a scene where relatives were separated and could not see each other, which resonated with many users and led to reposts.
In this event, Alipay grasped the user's psychology and cleverly utilized the overall environment to encourage users to participate.

2Low operation threshold

What is the way to collect the five blessings?

Isn’t it a very simple question?

The scanning method has been the main method since the first year. On the one hand, the operation threshold is low for users, and users can complete the task quickly without spending too much time. On the other hand, the operation threshold is extremely low, and there is not much age difference between users from young to old.
The operational threshold explains why the Alipay Five Blessings Collection campaign has attracted nationwide participation.

Here is an example:

“Honor of Kings” is very popular among users, but Alipay’s blessing collection is completely different. As long as you have a mobile phone, you can directly get blessing cards by “scanning”. You don't need to use any brainpower or check any tutorials to know how to play.
This is an important reason why everyone participates in Alipay’s “Collecting Five Blessings” campaign.

3High Reward Mechanism

Never underestimate human nature. Whitman once pointed out in "Money-making Advertising" that all human needs can be summed up as desires (i.e. human nature):
1. Greed: taking advantage, being unsatisfied, taking shortcuts, and being eager for quick success
2. Laziness: fear of trouble, unwillingness to think, rejection of new things, procrastination
3. Vanity: competitive, face-conscious, showing off, and eager to be praised
4. Fear: Strange things, unknown mysteries, death, illness
5. Low self-esteem: self-denial, desire for recognition from others, shyness
6. Curiosity: Snooping, curiosity, and curiosity

This is innate to human beings and cannot be shaken off. We consume because of fear, buy because of happiness, and change because of inferiority. For example, the “BeatU” advertisement of UCAR took advantage of users’ fear, highlighted the dangers of taking illegal taxis, and directly hit users’ pain points, thus defeating competitors in one fell swoop.

In the Alipay Five Blessings campaign, 500 million is the biggest temptation, which takes advantage of users' desire for bargains and constantly stimulates users to participate in the event. 500 million, as the biggest gimmick, it directly hits human nature and uses the extremely low operation threshold to attract users to continue to collect blessings. At the same time, different coupons can be obtained by scratching cards behind each "Fu" character, which to a certain extent stimulates users to convert their consumption behavior, thus killing two birds with one stone.

4. Herd mentality

What is herd mentality? It is the behavior that conforms to the public or the majority in terms of perception, judgment, and cognition. When I first heard about Alipay starting to collect the five blessings, I did not actively open Alipay, but heard about it through chatting with colleagues. The editor first started scanning the Five Blessings not because he wanted to share the money, but because he saw his colleagues scanning and thought he couldn’t be left behind.

In most cases, when users make a purchasing decision or take a certain action, they will not buy it immediately just because your product or service is good. Instead, what often prompts consumers to take a certain action is a momentary impulse or due to certain pressure.
The most important factor is herd mentality.

Why do people develop a herd mentality? When the situation is uncertain, the behavior of others is the most valuable reference;
2. Fear of deviation: A tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind;
3. The need for group integration: Being consistent with group members can make people more easily accepted by members;
4. Group cohesion: Have a strong sense of identity with your group

It can be inferred from this that the reason why Alipay’s Five Blessings Collection activity is so popular is closely related to the users’ “herd mentality”. Humans are social animals. They have a basic survival consciousness of living together for safety and a basic survival psychology of maintaining consistency with group members. Sometimes, in order to better integrate into the group, we will unconsciously ignore our own thoughts and choose to behave in a way that is consistent with the group.

5. Loss Aversion Principle

Have you ever thought about why the Alipay activity of collecting the five blessings can attract tens of thousands of people to participate, and why people are even willing to spend money to collect the five blessings? It is so big. People are afraid of losing something. Sometimes, in order to eliminate or alleviate this mentality, one will prompt oneself to engage in certain behaviors. We can call it: the principle of loss aversion.

For example:

Taobao coupons. On the one hand, it sends coupons to users, taking advantage of their desire for bargains and unwillingness to lose to make them buy.

On the other hand, by setting a coupon limit higher than the product price, users are constantly encouraged to break through their initial psychological price and generate more consumption behavior.

Some time ago, Alipay sent out red envelopes, and anyone who paid with Huabei could receive an additional 1-2 yuan, but the payment could only be made in physical stores. The editor has a colleague who went to the supermarket after get off work to spend a few dollars. This shows how much human nature controls human behavior. Of course, I also have this mentality.

In the Alipay Five Blessings collection, once you step into this pit, it will be an endless pit unless you collect all five blessings. In the early stage, we have spent part of our energy to collect blessings. In the later stage, due to the energy we have spent, the fear of not being able to collect, and the fear of missing out on 500 million points, we will constantly encourage ourselves to sweep blessings, exchange blessings, and even spend money to collect all five blessings to eliminate or alleviate this mentality. Sometimes, the reason why something becomes popular is that it is fun, but the most important thing is that it inspires a certain human nature of the user.
It is said that he who understands humanity will understand the world.