Psychology
Scarcity
We want things more when they are rare, limited or about to run out, and we hate to miss out on what others might get first.
All ads
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2018Save Our Species
Made only as many shirts per species as animals left in the wild, just 30 for the vaquita, so each one felt like a piece of something nearly gone.
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2018The Ticket Shoe
Released only 500 pairs, and the tiny run turned a transit pass into a trophy that hundreds camped out in sub-zero cold to get.
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2017Calling JohnMalkovich.com
Shows that the name you want may already belong to someone else, and 'before it's gone' turns that into a reason to claim yours now.
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2016Hungerithm
Changes the price more than 140 times a day, so a cheap Snickers might not last the hour and people grabbed the barcode while the deal was there.
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2009Singles' Day (11.11)
Half-price deals and free delivery that open at midnight on a single date give shoppers a deadline they cannot bear to miss.
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Island caretaker wanted. The best job in the world.Tourism Queensland2009
The Best Job in the World
One caretaker post on a Great Barrier Reef island, paying AU$150,000 for six months, drew 34,684 applicants from 201 countries chasing a prize only one could win.
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2008Hotel 626
Opened only between 6pm and 6am to bring back two discontinued flavours for Halloween, and a hotel with limited hours feels worth getting into while you can.
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2006Sundial
Moves the shadow of the M across a different breakfast item each hour, so every glance quietly reminds passers-by that breakfast time is running out.
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2006Bonded by Blood
Only 8,000 numbered posters, each obtainable only with an All Blacks jersey, made it a collectible that resold online for about US$400.
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1964The Pirelli Calendar
Never put the calendar on sale, sending it only to tyre dealers and a short list of powerful people, so its rarity made everyone else want one.
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An epoch making eventSelfridges1909
Blériot's monoplane at Selfridges
Offered the only chance to see the very aircraft that had just crossed the Channel, and around 150,000 people came over four days.
Scarcity: where it comes from
When people tasted the same biscuits from a jar holding two and from a jar holding ten, they rated the ones from the nearly empty jar as more desirable (Worchel, Lee and Adewole, 1975). Scarcity is one of Robert Cialdini's principles of influence.
In ads it shows up as limited editions, last chances, waiting lists, things only some people can get and stock that is running out.