Success story

Carlsberg is excited

Gamification was the perfect bridge between brand and technology

“Code promotions are notoriously difficult to execute digitally: Not anymore – the intuitive, versatile and reliable Playable platform is a true pleasure to work with”

–  Allard de Wijkerslooth, Media & Digital Manager, Carlsberg

Redemption rate

2x

higher redemption rate on
a “code on pack” campaign

Website traffic

1,500%

increase in traffic on website

Time spent

2.5x

more time spent on the
website per visit

Carlsberg brews what is probably the best beer in the world. This ambition pervades the entire organisation and the brand’s marketing specialists are also striving for world-class performance. This customer story is about how the Carlsberg marketing team discovered the Playable gamification platform and its great potential.

As active football sponsor of the Danish National team, it came natural to Carlsberg to run a big campaign during the Euro2020 football championship (yes, the one held in 2021) called “With the Team”. Although they were not official sponsors of the tournament, they simply had to do something, as it was partly held in Denmark. The tactical part of the campaign was a  “Win with the team” message and it was fairly simple: “Buy a Carlsberg can (limited edition) and check the code on the can to see if you have won Denmark fan merchandise.” 

Simple, yes, but only on the surface, and more than 2 million codes were generated for the campaign.  This kind of campaign, a.k.a. a code on pack campaign, requires an elaborate setup in the back office to give the audience a smooth experience. This is where the Playable gamification platform came in handy for the Carlsberg marketing team; the tool enabled them to design, launch and administer the campaign with less effort and greater effect than usual.

Services used

  • Lucky number game (a simple game)
  • Bulk prize integration
  • Code validation integration

The Instant gratification takes a well-oiled engine

The “With the Team” campaign went like this: On all the limited edition beer cans sold during the football tournament the customer would find a code beneath the split of the cans (that is; you wouldn’t be able to see the code until the can was opened). On a designated campaign page on the brand website, the customer could then check to see if it was a lucky number; if he or she had won fan merchandise supporting the Danish national eleven. 

The campaign site motor was the Playable platform. A simple “lucky number” game gave the visitor the excitement of finding out if he or she had won – the winners of course felt the tingling sensation of instant gratification, but also those who were left empty-handed had a joyful experience with Carlsberg at the campaign webpage.

Campaign objectives

The objectives of the campaign were to engage with fans, manifest a strong brand association with football, plus – very important – to drive sales. The Carlsberg marketing team has done this kind of campaign several times before but was pleasantly surprised to see how well it worked this time. The campaign also produced much better results than expected: A redemption rate twice as big compared to other “code on pack” campaigns, a high time-spend at the website and an increase in traffic to other Carlsberg websites.

“It works!”

As every marketer knows, campaign performance is only half the story. How difficult it is to execute a campaign, all the things that must be done and must work without hassle under the surface, often decides whether outwardly successful campaigns will be repeated or not.

The Carlsberg marketing team found the Playable platform to deliver just that;  easy and intuitive to work with, in the light of what it can achieve.

“We knew that this type of campaign was very effective, but our experience was that they were very difficult to execute and manage well. When we discovered the Playable platform, we felt it was a tremendous gift. Managing the backend is easy and intuitive and the technical setup, the functionalities and the flexibility are simply at an impressively high level.”

– Allard de Wijkerslooth, Media & Digital Manager, Carlsberg 

The team found that everything had been carefully thought through in the platform, all possible needs and situations were anticipated and solutions were at hand. Also, the legal demands were taken care of.

Easy integration in their existing brand website without having to do any coding as well as the re-use of campaigns is very easy with the platform, and these are some of the advantages the marketers at Carlsberg value the most. “Code on pack” campaigns are almost 100 % similar from time to time, and the Playable platform makes it easy to do the small alterations needed to re-launch a campaign.

Impressive results and a joyful experience

For a “code on pack” campaign, the main metric is the redemption rate. As mentioned above, it reached more than twice the normal rate of a campaign. But there were more results to impress our customer:

  • It was extremely easy for Carlsberg to integrate the campaign in their existing brand website 
  • A very easy technical setup, the numerous functionalities and liberating flexibility of the Playable platform 
  • Time spent at the campaign webpage was 2.5 times higher per visit
  • Bounce rate went down significantly on the website by ¼ compared to normal levels 

The conclusion is that the “With the Team” campaign became a great experience for Carlsberg. It was a big 360 degree campaign and the easiness of Playable’s platform integrations made it so much easier – that is without coding a single code themselves, leaving the budget for creative assets and marketing spend.

“The best gamification platform I have seen”

“I was extremely impressed with the platform as “code on pack” campaigns are difficult to manage. I have worked with other platforms but never experienced a platform at this level. The Playable platform has given us a clear competitive advantage. Without it, the campaign would have taken too much time, been too difficult, and we would have risked operational problems and breakdowns during the campaign. With the platform it all works – I don’t have to worry at all.”

– Allard de Wijkerslooth, Media & Digital Manager, Carlsberg 
“Introducing game campaigns to our marketing efforts has helped us lower our cost-per-lead AND has enabled us to get our app users to use the Neste app more often.”
— Tytti Stranding, B2C Marketing Manager, Neste Read the success story