We recently sat down with Bettina Engel Nielsen, Marketing Consultant at EWII, to explore how gamification transformed the way one of Denmark’s leading utility companies engages customers, generates leads, and communicates complex topics.
About EWII
EWII provides energy and digital services that help people and businesses live and work smarter. From electricity and heating to fibre internet and sustainability solutions, they focus on making everyday life easier while supporting Denmark’s green future.
Before gamification: engagement was flat, and customers hesitated to share permissions
EWII’s challenge was straightforward but difficult: traditional communication formats were no longer enough to motivate customers to interact with content or share marketing consent.
“Customers were reluctant to share permissions or additional information. It was hard to spark curiosity with the communication we used before.”
Sign-ups were slow. Behaviour insights were limited. And many customers — especially internet-only customers — had no reason to ever log into EWII’s customer portal.
EWII needed a new approach: something more dynamic, interactive, and user-friendly. EWII explored different gamification vendors before choosing Scratcher.
“Scratcher offered the right combination of flexibility, ease of use, and a strong track record. We didn’t need heavy development, and the price made more sense for what we needed.”
With Scratcher, EWII could quickly build quizzes, polls, educational journeys, loyalty games, and prize activations—each tailored to reflect the brand’s values and make complex topics like electricity, Wi-Fi, and EV charging easier to understand.
“Gamification helps us make energy and tech topics understandable and fun. We can deliver information in a much more engaging way.”
How EWII uses gamification across the entire customer lifecycle
What makes EWII’s approach unique is that gamification isn’t a one-off tactic — it’s embedded into the whole value chain.
1. Lead generation (prospects and customers)
EWII’s marketing relies on email flows, which requires valid marketing permissions. Scratcher became a cost-effective, high-volume engine for collecting them.
“We needed more permissions for better targeting. With Scratcher, cost per lead has dropped, and volume is no longer difficult to achieve.”
Campaigns run across up to 20+ channels — Facebook, Instagram, affiliate partners, customer service links, magazines, email, and the website — each tracked individually through Scratcher’s unique link feature.
EWII can instantly compare which channels deliver the best leads and switch off underperformers.
2. Customer loyalty and anti-churn (always-on programmes)
Every month, EWII runs exclusive customer games inside the login section of their website — a major success driver. These are often co-sponsored through EWII’s local partnerships.
“We see a huge increase in logins when we place customer-exclusive games inside the portal. It builds loyalty and gives customers a reason to come back.”
3. Education of complex topics
Energy, internet speed, and electricity products can be hard to explain. Gamification has made it easier. EWII uses quizzes to teach customers:
- Which internet speed to choose for their household
- Which electricity programme fits their lifestyle
- What EWII offers beyond their current product portfolio
It’s a simple way to turn boring content into understandable, interactive learning. As Bettina puts it: “A lot of companies have boring content — but they still need to communicate it. Gamification makes it easy to understand. Everyone should use it.”
4. Cross-selling and upselling
More permissions → better segmentation → more targeted growth.
“Cross-selling and upselling are going well. But we can’t do it without permissions. Scratcher provides the leads we need to communicate effectively.”
A good example is EWII’s Christmas card activation: Customers receive a QR code that leads to a Scratcher quiz teaching them about EWII. If they answer correctly, they can win an instant prize and simultaneously provide marketing consent, entering a targeted email flow about EWII, customer advantages and other relevant products from its portfolio.
Business impact: more leads, lower costs, higher engagement
1. Lead volume is higher — at a significantly lower cost
Traditional forms struggled to bring in permissions. Gamification solved that.
“It’s not hard to get volume anymore — and at a low price.”
2. Customer logins have increased 60%
Especially among customers who historically never had a reason to log in (e.g., internet-only customers).
3. Higher loyalty & reduced churn risk
Monthly customer games keep people connected to EWII.
4. Better cross-selling & upselling results
Permissions → segmentation → targeted communication → conversions.
Looking ahead: gamification as part of EWII’s future strategy
EWII is planning to expand the use of Scratcher even further — especially for green storytelling, customer loyalty, and rewarding sustainable behaviour.
“Scratcher will be part of many future campaigns. We are looking at new ideas. It could be badges for customers making good energy efforts at home.”
The strategy is clear: little effort → huge volume of leads → continuous value for customers and for EWII.
Bettina’s advice to other marketers
“Start small. With little effort you get a large number of leads. Create one good template and reuse it. And always consider where Scratcher can support your campaign — because it can support almost all types of campaigns. Gamification turns boring content into something people actually enjoy. Everyone should use it.”
“Scratcher offered the right combination of flexibility, ease of use, and a strong track record. We didn’t need heavy development, and the price made more sense for what we needed.” — Bettina Engel Nielsen, Marketing Consultant at EWII
When play meets performance: results from the KitchenAid activation
The “Vind KitchenAid” campaign delivered one of EWII’s strongest digital performances to date.
What makes this performance even more compelling is the simplicity of the concept. Users were invited to sign up for EWII’s newsletter and answer three quick questions for a chance to win a KitchenAid stand mixer. A clear, attractive incentive combined with a playful, intuitive experience created the perfect formula for high participation and permission growth.
With 36,518 impressions and an impressive 68.51% interaction conversion rate—meaning over two-thirds of everyone who saw the campaign chose to engage—the activation quickly became a high-engagement magnet across channels.
More than 25,000 users interacted with the game, and 14,852 completed the full experience, resulting in a 40.67% participant conversion rate, more than triple the industry average of 10–15% for energy-sector campaigns.
Participants spent an average of 1 minute and 13 seconds engaging with EWII’s content, accumulating over 311 hours of total attention. That’s nearly 13 full days of continuous user engagement—an exceptional result for brand storytelling, education, and customer understanding.
Results
- 36,518 impressions
- 25,000+ interactions
- 40.67% participant conversion rate
