Purity, performance, pleasure: the rise of nicotine pouches
Purity, performance, pleasure: the rise of nicotine pouches
By Nicolas Cook, Associate Director - August 21, 2025
You have seen them in your local corner shop. On the next table over at the pub. Small, round plastic tubs with brightly coloured branding. People stealthily placing small white pouches under their upper lip. Nicotine pouches (or snus) are having a moment.
A smoke free future
From 20th Century glamour embodied in smoking Hollywood movie stars to 21st century rebelliousness and stigma, our relationship to smoking has come a long way.
Policy changes have driven a decline in smoking in the UK. Cigarette advertising limitations, branding and product visibility restrictions, and new rules on smoking in public places have impacted tobacco’s visibility and accessibility.
Cultural shifts have equally contributed. Wellness and fitness culture, changing nightlife rituals, and shifting depictions of smoking in TV and film (from the hands of the hero to the villain) have moved people - especially younger people - away from smoking.
Changing habits
Young people’s relationship with tobacco is far from over. Use of alternative nicotine products has risen, especially vaping. In 2015, a quarter (24%) of 16-24s smoked and less than one in ten (6%) used vapes. Ten years later this has flipped, with 8% smoking and 23% using vapes.
Vaping culture has quickly developed in the UK, immediately apparent through abundant vape shops on every high street. Smoking’s successor - the haptics without (some of) the risks. Rebellion lite for a more health conscious youth. Vape’s playful packaging and marketing have appealed to a generation experiencing a delayed adulthood, limited by challenging economic and social headwinds.
Rise of a new alternative
Yet a new shift is underway. While vapes remain the product of choice, nicotine pouches are one of the fastest growing nicotine categories in the UK. 92 million pouches were bought in 2022, and Google searches for nicotine pouches have increased threefold in the past five years. Social media has been flooded with advertising and lifestyle influencers collabing with leading nicotine pouch brands.
In the face of changing consumer tastes and regulatory environments, international tobacco brands such as Japan Tobacco International, British American Tobacco and Phillip Morris International have been able to innovate, develop and market nicotine pouch brands quickly (Nordic Spirit, VELO and ZYN respectively).
Unlike vapes, nicotine pouches are almost unnoticeable when used. Adoption has therefore relied on expert attention on branding, pack design and marketing - efforts now seemingly reaping rewards.
This represents a masterclass in how brands can connect to dominant cultural codes to quickly and effectively engage with younger consumers.
Natural wellness
Nicotine pouch brands trade off their Scandinavian origins, connecting themselves to the region's reputation for natural beauty, freshness and balance. They transform vice into revitalisation and rejuvenation for a generation intensely focussed on mental and physical wellbeing.
Discrete indulgence
Under the watchful gaze of peers, parents, and society, overt indulgence can feel risky to young people. Nicotine pouches allow a private escape - a way to be hedonistic without signalling it to the outside world.
Peak performance
Smoking and vaping can often feel incompatible with a focus on performance optimisation and focus. Nicotine pouches do not compromise performance. Instead, they can fuel a ‘locked-in’ lifestyle. This has been emphasised through elite sportspeople being pictured with nicotine pouch boxes.
Looking ahead
The increased development and marketing of nicotine pouch products by tobacco companies is the latest play to safeguard business and secure their consumer base at a time when vaping is coming under increased scrutiny.
The latest study from University of York and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) notes how vapers are not only more likely to smoke in later life, but are also more likely to smoke more frequently than non-vapers. Nicotine pouches are far from a healthy alternative. But as yet they are not subject to either the same social and medical scrutiny as vapes, nor stigma.
Young people are not naive about the risks. While sales of nicotine pouches are increasing, so is concern for the health impacts. Google search data shows high volumes of searches for the side effects and health impacts of continued nicotine pouch use. It remains to be seen whether rising concern will impact a shift in behaviour.
Tobacco and nicotine use is not going anywhere thanks to successful product innovation and marketing strategies designed to capture a generation by responding to youth rituals, values and aesthetics.
