From payment to shopping, blue to pink, Afghan dogs, dancing bellies, fish gliding down a slide, Snoop Dogg as an investor and from 20 to 50 billion in valuation - in 3 years. One word and you get it. Smoooth.
In 2016, 20% of all Swedes said they were never going to use Klarna. The fintech company from Sweden took cues from the banking category, looked blue, male and very rational. The communication talked about “Simplify buying” and it didn’t work to drive growth for the business. Klarna was more or less a complete B2B business, but to win merchants, we decided to focus on consumers.
And to win the hearts and wallets of consumers, we leaned into the world of shopping. Because no one likes to pay for stuff, but they love shopping. So, we decided to move Klarna from being a rational payment provider to an emotional shopping experience.
Take Klarna out of the sea of sameness
To take Klarna out of the sea of sameness, break category conventions and win consumers, we needed to do something radical. Our starting point was the product experience. It had to be smooth. But not smooth. Smoooth. Like Klarna. So, with this single-minded thought, we decided to give it not a space but all the space. And have it color everything the brand says and does. From how a dog chases its own tail in the checkout in the app, to how press images of the CEO looks like, never-ending cheese being sliced or a Smoooth creature swimming in a pool. All Smoooth.
In 2019, we had American rapper Snoop Dogg change his name to Smoooth Dogg and become a shareholder in Klarna. And in 2021, we took people out of fashion hibernation with the help of the one and only A$AP Rocky.
Second highest valued fintech company
Today, Klarna is the second highest valued fintech company in the world and less than 1% of Swedes say they would never use Klarna. Number of markets has increased from 6 to 45, merchants from 60,000 to 575,000 and end users have surged from 10,000,000 to 85,000,000. Oh and yes, it’s a bank we’re talking about. Smoooth.