Klarna, the shopping app from Sweden, faced the challenge of launching in America.

Trusted in Sweden, yet completely unknown in America with virtually zero awareness, and up against the world's largest companies: Amazon. WalMart. Apple Pay. PayPal.

Our brief was to launch Swedish Klarna in the U.S., and introduce young Americans to a better, smoother way to shop with Klarna.

Brand Objectives: Awareness, trial - app downloads and user growth.

Social Objectives: Drive views and engagement, to support brand goals.

Klarna was unknown in the U.S., however, 91% of young Americans perceived Sweden to be a progressive and tech forward country. So, we borrowed the positive equity of the entire country and launched “Swedish For Smooother Shopping,” turning absolutely anything Swedish into hard-hitting ads for Klarna.

From Swedish cinema and TV shows, to commercials, soap operas and more - we transformed 50 years of Swedish content into over 60 new films by rewriting the Swedish dialogue with reimagined English subtitles about how great shopping with Klarna is.

First, we used our Swedishness to get all of America’s attention, and then we got millions to experience shopping with Klarna through a series of first of their kind interactive experiences, including a Super Bowl campaign with a built in social shopping initiative to support minority owned businesses.

“Swedish For Smooother” U.S. launch took Klarna from unknown to America’s fastest growing fintech.

Up against the world's largest competitors. Outspending them to gain awareness was not an option. Armed with the statistic 91% of young Americans perceive Sweden to be progressive and tech forward, we doubled down on our quirky Swedish personality to gain outsized attention from our millennial target audience. Creating “Swedish For Smooother Shopping,” an entertainment series and mobile first interactive experiences.

2020 was the year the world went into lockdown. Uncertainty was up and discretionary spending was down. Just as people’s worlds were getting smaller, Klarna asserted themselves as the solution to clunky and uninspiring online shopping experiences by bringing Klarna’s modern shopping experience into the content and social feeds of our audiences. Successfully uniting media and commerce by creating: Shoppable Entertainment, and integrating Klarna into popular culture with first of a kind interactive experiences including films and gaming takeovers that got millions of people shopping with Klarna.

We transformed 50 years of Swedish film content into 60+ new pieces of social entertainment by rewriting the Swedish dialogue with English subtitles about how great shopping with Klarna is. Designed for social feeds, our technique allowed us to be shamelessly hard-hitting.

From June-2020 through January-2021, we released our social film series, with regular updates, that kept engagement and view-through rates high, and built a cult following on social media. We then got millions to experience shopping with Klarna through a series of social and mobile first experiences. We made interactive films targeting every passion group that people could shop. Made Animal Crossing shoppable creating little Sweden Island, all live-streamed on Twitch. Made outfits in the hit TV-show ‘Killing Eve’ shoppable in real-time, exclusively in the app.

Ultimately bringing the Swedish way of shopping to America’s biggest stage: The Super Bowl, with an interactive social initiative highlighting minority owned businesses.

The Swedish for Smoother Shopping campaign delivered brand and marketing results that surpassed all targets, and fueled business results that exceeded expectations.

Considered incredibly successful, the social film series had millions of views generating 525MM+ impressions, 369MM+ social impressions, averaging 70%+ view-through rates across all films, generating 1.6MM+ click throughs, hundreds of thousands of shares, comments and engagements.

Taking Klarna from unknown to America’s fastest growing fintech delivering:

175% awareness increase

Over 200% increase in customers

Doubled U.S. users to 15 million

60,000 app downloads daily

Tripled active users year-over-year

Klarna valuation tripled from $10B to $31 Billion