In their flagship Oxford Circus store, Topshop have leveraged gamification by creating a ‘life-size’ snow globe in a bid to immerse shoppers into some festive fun.

With a likeness to the final challenge of Crystal Maze, customers are tasked with catching gold tokens whilst sprayed with metallic confetti. Tokens are exchanged for entries into an on-the-spot draw, where prizes range from beauty treats and gift cards, through to a £1,000 personal shopping spree.

Despite being overtly fun and distinct, the initiative has a compelling behavioural angle, leading with the caption “Everyone’s a winner” – a nice example of loss aversion. However, to play customers must spend £50+ in-store, nudging them into upping their basket size in exchange for a guaranteed win.

The science doesn’t end there. Launched on the 12th of December and running through to the 20th, the initiative benefits from the appeal of scarcity. The globe’s fitted-camera also creates social incentive, offering players the chance to share and boast to friends with a Boomerang of them partaking.

So whether it’s capturing the attention of the passer-by, uplifting spend or creating social-buzz, we love how Topshop are gamifying with behavioural science.

As an agency, influencing behaviours is core to what we do and applying Behavioural Economics to marketing communications is a natural progression. If you are interested in understanding more about how we do this get in touch now.

Find out more about the connection between consumers and behavioural economics in our latest report on the top trends driving consumer behaviour. Download it here.