How Nordic Spirit Austria Built a Verified Data Engine Using Loyalty

Introducing Nordic Spirit

Nordic Spirit is a leading brand in the nicotine pouch market, offering a tobacco-free, odorless alternative for adult users. Operating in a highly regulated industry, their primary goal was to move beyond simple transactions to create a “Social Club” lifestyle brand that resonated with their audience in the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region.

Challenges

The primary hurdle for Nordic Spirit was engagement retention and merchant discovery.

1. The “Anonymous” Offline Customer: They sold physical cans in retail but had no digital bridge to connect with those users, creating a data black hole.
2. The “Regulatory Wall”: Mandatory Age Verification (18+) usually acts as a conversion killer. Asking users to scan a passport creates high friction and high drop-off.
3. Transactional vs. Emotional: They needed to differentiate themselves from competitors by offering more than just discounts—they needed to sell a lifestyle.

How they used Gameball?

Nordic Spirit implemented “Nordic Circle,” a fully integrated loyalty ecosystem powered by Gameball. This solution addressed the technical limitations of standard ecommerce by integrating Identity Verification tools directly into the rewards flow, turning compliance into a gamified experience.

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1. Incentivized Compliance (The KYC Accelerator)
Instead of viewing Age Verification as a barrier, they treated it as a “Quest.” Nordic Spirit set up a custom flow where verifying age via automated verification tools (Passport/ID scan) instantly “unlocks” a Free Discovery Kit.

• Users are no longer submitting documents because they “have to”; they are doing it to earn a tangible reward.
  

2. Full German Localization: To ensure the highest level of user confidence and seamless navigation, Gameball’s multi-language widget was implemented fully in German. This native language support was critical for the local market, ensuring that all missions, rewards, and verification steps felt like a natural, domestic experience rather than a foreign plug-in.

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3. The “Phygital” Bridge (Scan-to-Earn)
To solve the offline data gap, they implemented a feature allowing users to scan QR codes on physical cans.

• The Mechanism: This drives retail customers immediately to the website to log points, turning a physical habit into digital retention.

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4. Merchandise as Currency (Visual Goal Setting)
They utilized Gameball’s reward catalog to offer exclusive branded merchandise. Users can redeem points for Aluminum Cans (10,000 pts), Water Bottles (6,000 pts), and Caps (3,000 pts).

• UX Detail: The widget uses Lock Icons and Progress Bars to visualize these goals, leveraging the “Endowed Progress Effect” to motivate the next purchase.

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5. Experience-Based Rewards

Moving beyond “stuff,” they used the platform to offer tickets to the Frequency Festival and exclusive House Parties. This creates emotional loyalty by associating the brand with good times and friends.

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Why it worked

1. The “Value-for-Compliance” Exchange

   The success of Nordic Spirit’s strategy highlights a key lesson for regulated industries: Friction is acceptable if the Reward is sufficient. By placing the Free Kit behind the verification wall, they financially engineered user behavior to maximize verified sign-ups.
2. Social Proof & FOMO

   They explicitly display “More than 6,705 members are already on board” during the signup process. This creates a “Club” atmosphere rather than a corporate mailing list, increasing the likelihood of conversion.
3. Frictionless Sharing

   They optimized the referral loop. The “Invite & Secure” feature allows users to copy their referral link with a single click (Visual feedback: “Link Copied Successfully”). Combined with a massive 5,000 Point Bounty (enough for 5 free cans), this turns every verified user into a recruiter.

What you can learn from Nordic Spirit

Most brands are scared of friction. They think asking for data or IDs kills sales. Nordic Spirit proves the opposite. If the Reward is strong enough (The Free Kit), customers will jump through hoops for you.



TLDR; Some frictions are forced, play around it with incentives.

Use your loyalty points to ‘pay’ customers for doing the hard work (Verifying ID, filling out profiles, scanning receipts). Nordic Spirit didn’t just build a loyalty program; they built a Verified Data Engine disguised as a VIP Club.

The results

By integrating Gameball with robust verification software, Nordic Spirit successfully built a Verified Data Engine disguised as a VIP Club, driving massive engagement in just a few months.


• 140% Growth in Loyalty Members: Achieved in just 4 months, successfully onboarding thousands of verified, legal-age users.
• 71% Avg. MoM Growth in Repeat Purchase Rate: The “Scan the Can” habit effectively drove offline users back to the online store for repeat transactions.
• 83% Avg. MoM Growth in Retention Rate: The combination of “Unlockable” merchandise and experiential rewards kept users active well beyond their first purchase.
• 48% Redemption Rate: Nearly half of all users are actively using their points, proving that the rewards catalog (Merch + Festivals) is highly desirable and driving long-term engagement.