Danish sportswear brand
How hummel lifted CTR by 99% and revenue by 77% in one week with gamified email flows.
For many brands, gamification is used for lead generation or awareness. hummel focused where it mattered most commercially: within automated email flows and key seasonal campaigns.
By adding interactivity to abandoned cart journeys, product interest emails, and seasonal campaigns, hummel transformed routine touchpoints into measurable revenue opportunities.
What began as a way to grow subscribers and engagement has quickly evolved into a performance-driven CRM strategy.
With Playable, we’ve been able to drive revenue, grow our subscriber base, and re-engage the audience we already have. Louise Guldbæk Christiansen, Technical CRM Specialist at hummel
With Playable, we’ve been able to drive revenue, grow our subscriber base, and re-engage the audience we already have.
Louise Guldbæk Christiansen, Technical CRM Specialist at hummel
Like many ecommerce brands, hummel already had an automated lifecycle email program running year-round, including abandoned cart, abandoned cart reminder, and product interest flows. These journeys consistently reached customers who had already shown clear purchase intent.
Following major sales periods such as Black Friday and the Mid Season Sale, the team saw an opportunity to capture one final wave of conversions before demand slowed down.
Rather than rebuilding their setup or launching new campaigns, hummel enhanced their existing flows for one week by adding a Wheel of Fortune directly inside the emails. The logic was simple: these were high-intent customers, already deep in the purchase funnel, having added items to their cart or browsed products multiple times. They didn’t need to be convinced of the product – they just needed a final push toward conversion. By letting them spin to win a 10% discount, hummel turned that nudge into a moment of excitement. The gamified mechanic increased the perceived value of the offer and created a sense of urgency, making customers more likely to complete their purchase.
Performance from the gamified Wheel of Fortune activation after their Mid Season Sale was compared with the previous week, and the impact was clear.
These gains were achieved despite lower broadcast volumes than the previous week, highlighting stronger efficiency rather than simply more traffic.
We were really surprised by how strong the results were. It showed us that adding gamification to our existing flows makes a big commercial difference. Emma Graversgaard, CRM Specialist at hummel
We were really surprised by how strong the results were. It showed us that adding gamification to our existing flows makes a big commercial difference.
Emma Graversgaard, CRM Specialist at hummel
Beyond lifecycle flows, hummel applied gamification to key commercial moments. Its Easter activation became one of the brand’s first major seasonal campaigns with Playable – demonstrating how a single campaign can support multiple outcomes.
Rather than a one-size-fits-all offer, hummel tailored two journeys based on audience type.
Visitors saw an on-site pop-up inviting them to participate in an Easter quiz.The quiz created a more engaging signup journey than a traditional newsletter form. In the quiz, participants learned more about hummel, the brand’s vision, and the benefits of becoming a ‘clubhummel’ member. By participating, they consented to receive marketing communications and in exchange received a tailored discount code based on market preferences and webshop setup. For example, Denmark received 20% off full-price items, while Germany received a smaller discount valid across the full assortment.
Because this audience already knew the brand and were existing subscribers, the strategy focused on reactivation and sales through a separate conversion-focused email journey. But instead of simply including a 20% discount code directly in the email, hummel chose to present the same offer through a Scratchcard campaign with a 100% win rate.
The idea was that when customers actively “win” a reward rather than simply receive it, they place higher value on it and feel more motivated to redeem it. By gamifying the delivery of the offer, hummel made the campaign more engaging and gave subscribers a stronger reason to shop the new arrivals.
Both journeys used the same 20% discount code, but each was designed for a different purpose:
Together, the Easter campaign generated:
“We have never seen such high revenue for a short-duration email campaign before”. Emma Graversgaard, CRM Specialist at hummel
“We have never seen such high revenue for a short-duration email campaign before”.
Following strong results in both lifecycle flows and seasonal campaigns, hummel sees further potential for gamification beyond revenue generation.
Future opportunities include using interactive experiences for data enrichment, helping the brand collect valuable customer preferences for stronger personalization, as well as fan activation across its many sponsorships in both football and handball.
Ultimately, hummel views gamification not as a one-off tactic, but as a scalable strategy to drive growth, gather customer insight, and build stronger customer relationships.
We’ve seen what gamification can do for our revenue and engagement and we feel like there’s so much more to unlock Louise Guldbæk Christiansen, Technical CRM Specialist at hummel
We’ve seen what gamification can do for our revenue and engagement and we feel like there’s so much more to unlock