Kärcher Case Study: How Gamification Boosts CTR and Open Rate

Sending emails alone isn’t enough to engage your audience. You need innovative solutions that help your message stand out among dozens of emails from other companies. The world-famous Kärcher brand, together with Promodo, found an effective approach through gamification.

In this article, you’ll discover the results achieved by integrating gamification into email campaigns.

About the Project

Kärcher is a Germany-based manufacturer of cleaning and maintenance equipment. In Ukraine, the company sells its products through an official online store.

Since 2019, the brand has been working on retention marketing together with the Promodo agency. Their collaboration is focused on setting up and running effective email campaigns using omnichannel Yespo CDP tools.

At the beginning of the collaboration, the agency team addressed key aspects:

• verified the domain;
• created a client's account in Yespo system
• developed new templates for emails;
• prepared regular triggered and mass campaigns;
• validated the contact base.

Kärcher carefully maintains the relevance of its email database: invalid addresses are removed, inactive subscribers are re-engaged, and the list is expanded using proven retention marketing tools.

But the project team decided to go even further.

Task

Kärcher approached the Promodo agency with the following requests:

1. Increase Open Rate and Click-Through Rate of email campaigns by implementing gamification.
2. Enhance audience engagement ahead of a price increase.

Project implementation

Gamified email campaign

To capture the audience's attention, interactive elements were added to the emails using АМР technology.

Gamification boosts user engagement through interactive content, which draws more attention than plain information or standard promotional materials. For gamification to be effective, it’s crucial to choose a game mechanic that sparks interest and positive emotions.

Kärcher chose the ‘’Spin the Wheel’’ option, which has proven to be highly effective in engaging the audience. To encourage participation, they introduced a special offer: buy Kärcher appliances at a discounted price and get a free gift with a limited-time promo code.

Mechanics of Gamification

To engage users, it was decided that the gamification would be a win-win experience and work as follows:

1. The customer plays Spin the Wheel either in the email or its browser-based version.
2. They receive a promo code valid for 4 days.
3. When placing an order, they use the promo code to receive one of the gifts, which included a backpack, a tape measure, a shopping bag, an ice scraper, or free shipping.

Base Segmentation

Kärcher aimed to reach as many subscribers as possible with the offer and drive orders.

To maximize conversion, they selected email contacts who had interacted with the brand over the past year. At the same time, customers who had made a purchase within a month before the mailing were excluded from the list.

As a result, the segment of active contacts for this campaign accounted for 41% of Kärcher’s total email database.

Results

The AMP campaign achieved the set goals and positively impacted key performance indicators (KPIs).

*average for six months before the activity

Kärcher recognized the effectiveness of this gamified activity, and plans to use this approach more often to engage the audience.

Special Request Inline