April 29, 2025: The Indian Railways serves 24 million travellers daily. However, the number of people travelling without a ticket has surged significantly, costing the system hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly losses.
Instead of cracking down harder, Indian Railways in Mumbai has found a smarter way to change behaviour—by tapping into something India loves luck. Because while millions of people skip paying for train tickets, India spends over $30 billion on lottery tickets annually.
Enter Lucky Yatra, a new initiative from Indian Railways in Mumbai that transforms every train ticket into a lottery ticket. Conceptualised by FCB India, the unique number on every train ticket is now a potential winner, giving passengers an incentive to always travel with a valid ticket. Every day, lucky travellers will stand to win cash rewards, turning ticket buying from a routine expense into an exciting opportunity.
“By shifting the conversation from penalty to possibility, Lucky Yatra is reshaping how passengers view train tickets,” added Rakesh Menon, Chief Creative Officer at FCB Interface(part of FCB India). “No longer just a fare—it’s a chance to win big, demonstrating the sheer power of creative commerce to implement an innovative solution and ultimately change behaviour.”
To ensure millions of daily commuters saw and heard about the initiative, FCB India also rolled out a launch campaign across high-impact touchpoints, including contextual OOH in railway stations, digital, and radio, even putting messaging on the trains themselves. The agency also broadcast announcements at train stations to remind travellers that their ticket wasn’t just a way to board a train—it could be their lucky break.
