Most people buy tickets before they know anything about the event, buying tickets to a festival without knowing the lineup or to an ice hockey game without knowing the opponent. The tickets are cheaper and the window of buying them is limited, which is a deliberately designed marketing technique also known as scarcity marketing. The research widely agrees that scarcity works. But the more interesting question is: how and why does it work?
Scarcity marketing and how it works
Scarcity marketing refers to a promotional strategy that emphasises the limited availability of or a product or service, in terms of time, quantity, or both. It is used to increase the perceived value and create urgency to purchase (Hamilton et al. 2019). In the context of event ticketing, it translates to practice such as early-bird pricing, time-limited offers, countdown timers at the point of purchase or explicit messaging about restricted ticket quantity.
The tactic is based on the psychological mechanisms such as the fear of missing out (FOMO), anticipated regret and the psychological ownership a person develops to a product that is not theirs yet (Tang et al. 2025). The academic literature supports the effectiveness of scarcity appeals, particularly for experiential goods such as events tickets, because events are non-repeatable and timebound, which amplifies the psychological cost of not engaging (Barton et al. 2022).
Not all urgency is the same
The case study (Bingert 2026) examined three organisations: the Weekend Festival in Espoo, the ice hockey team SaiPa Lappeenranta, and the ticketing platform Tiketti.
The Weekend Festival uses the most obvious approach: ticket price increase in tier-based stages tied to the announcement of more performing artists. The earliest buyers commit to a ticket without knowing anything about the lineup and save money compared to people buying at the later pricing tiers. The scarcity of the tickets is communicated consistently over different platforms, building urgency over several months before the event.
SaiPa relies less on constructed marketing pressure and more on the structural conditions of a professional ice hockey team. They are bound to a fixed arena capacity, seasonal ticket holders and the unpredictable playoff qualification. Scarcity is real rather than manufactured. Explicit urgency messages, such as only standing tickets remaining, only appear when supply is genuinely low.
Tiketti adds its own layer to the strategies set by the event organisers. Its website includes colour coded availability indicators and a checkout countdown. For a consumer buying their Weekend Festival tickets via Tiketti, the customer journey is shaped by multiple scarcity cues.
When does urgency become manipulation?
Scarcity marketing exists on a spectrum. On one hand, the structural scarcity with a genuine limited number of seats, an event that will not repeat, and a price that reflects actual cost and demand. On the other hand, synthetic scarcity with artificial countdowns timer and pricing that does not reflect demand but what a customer can be pressured into paying. (Komad 2026)
The ethical distinction matters because the psychological mechanisms that scarcity marketing exploits operate partly below the level of conscious reasoning (Tang et al. 2025). Consumers can recognise a countdown timer as a pressure tactic and still feel the pressure. The main question for event organiser is if they are willing to trade the trust of the consumer for their exaggerated scarcity marketing. Most of the organisers relate on repeat attendance in order for their early-bird tactics to work, losing costumer trust would be a backlash for them.
Knowing the trick does not make you immune
The consumer survey revealed a divergence: Over 73% of respondents had missed an event at least once due to waiting too long to buy tickets. Of those more than half experienced FOMO after that. That experience of genuine regret is what makes scarcity marketing and early-bird tickets work. Early-bird pricing was reported as influential by the largest share of respondents. Countdown timers, despise being widely encountered, were largely dismissed. Most respondents disagreed that seeing countdown timers made them more likely to buy. The difference comes down to a financial logic. The early-bird prices give the consumer a concrete reason to purchase whereas a countdown creates pressure without a noticeable reason.
Authors
Maja Bingert is bachelor’s student at Tourism and Hospitality Management at LAB University of Applied Sciences.
Hanna-Mari Karhinen is Senior Lecturer at Business and Hospitality management at LAB University of Applied Sciences.
References
Barton, B., Zlatevska, N. & Oppewal, H. 2022. Scarcity tactics in marketing: A meta-analysis of product scarcity effects on consumer purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing. Vol. 98 (4), 741–758. Cited 20 May 2026. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2022.06.003
Bingert, M. 2026. Scarcity Marketing in Event Marketing. Bachelor Thesis. LAB University of Applied Sciences. Lappeenranta. Cited 20 May 2026. Available at https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2026052014305
geralt. 2019. Altmann, G. Elokuvateatteri, pääsylippu. Pixabay. Cited 28 May 2026. Available at https://pixabay.com/fi/illustrations/elokuvateatteri-p%C3%A4%C3%A4sylippu-4209088/
Hamilton, R., Thompson, D., Bone, S., Chaplin, L.N., Griskevicius, V., Goldsmith, K., Hill, R., John, D.R., Mittal, C., O’Guinn, T., Piff, P., Roux, C., Shah, A. & Zhu, M. 2019. The effects of scarcity on consumer decision journeys. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol. 47 (3), 532–550. Cited 20 May 2026. Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-018-0604-7
Komad, M. 2026. Time Pressure, Countdowns, and Urgency Manipulation. Cited 28 Apr 2026. Available at https://medium.com/@milijanakomad/time-pressure-countdowns-and-urgency-manipulation-fd1f190e33c8
Tang, X., Shao, F. & Zhang, Y. 2025. The effect of product scarcity appeals on consumers’ impulse buying intentions. Current Psychology. Vol. 44 (23), 17831–17845. Cited 20 May 2026. Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08251-7
