Submitted by Dentsu CreativeAgency IPI Score 84/100

Komm mal Klarna

Influencer Marketing

Dentsu Creative DACH built brand awareness for Klarna among young Germans by co-creating 'struggle solver' products with three artists, extended through film, out-of-home and live events.

37MOOH reach
15KApp downloads
3.3MDigital reach
600KOrganic reach
1.5MFashion Week reach
6.6MGiphy sticker views

About the campaign

Klarna's smoooth shopping promise is a feeling rather than a feature, which made it hard to communicate to fast-moving, skeptical young German consumers who do not identify with traditional payment brand messaging. Dentsu Creative DACH anchored the campaign in the contradictions of modern young life, being vegan but wearing leather, minimalist but hoarding deliveries, and reframed those everyday struggles with humour as authentic expressions of identity worth celebrating, positioning Klarna as an enabler of self-expression rather than a payment utility.

The idea came to life through three struggle solver products co-created with German artists Yung Hurn, Alli Neumann and Apache 207, who acted as cultural co-authors rather than endorsers and appeared together in a joint campaign film that mixed Sci-Fi and Western aesthetics over a nearly 50-year-old classic track. The film was supported by Germany-wide out-of-home across billboards, transit stations and building wraps, live Smoooth Lounge activations at Fashion Week and Melt Festival offering massages, selfie spots and festival essentials, and custom Giphy stickers for organic sharing.

The agency reports 12 million people reached through out-of-home, 1.5 million reach from three days at Fashion Week, 1.1 million from digital activity and 2.2 million Giphy sticker views.

Case in 60 seconds

Klarna's 'smoooth shopping' brand feeling is experiential and abstract, making it hard to communicate to a fast-moving, skeptical young German audience that does not readily identify with traditional payment brand messaging.

People identify with emotions rather than advertising, and young German consumers carry everyday contradictions, for example being vegan while wearing leather, or minimalist while hoarding deliveries, that could be met with humour and empowerment rather than product features.

Position Klarna as a solution to the everyday struggles of an entire generation by co-creating three 'struggle solver' products with recognisable German artists, translating an abstract brand feeling into concrete cultural artefacts that celebrate self-expression.

Dentsu Creative DACH developed struggle solver products in collaboration with artists Yung Hurn, Alli Neumann and Apache 207, brought together in a joint film mixing Sci-Fi and Western aesthetics scored with an unexpected near-50-year-old classic track, supported by Germany-wide out-of-home, the Smoooth Lounge at Fashion Week and Melt Festival, and custom Giphy stickers for organic reach.

Agency-reported figures show out-of-home reached 37M people across Germany, the Fashion Week activation delivered 1.5M reach in three days, digital activity added 3.3M reach, organic content reached 600K, and Giphy stickers accumulated 6.6M views. All figures are self-reported and not independently verified.

Strategy Breakdown

The primary strategy-learning section — interpretation, not a press-release summary.

Young German consumers who are skeptical of traditional financial brand advertising and who experience everyday lifestyle contradictions, such as holding values that sit in tension with their consumption habits.
The campaign identified the contradictions of modern young life in Germany — vegan but wearing leather, minimalist but hoarding deliveries — and used humour to frame these not as failures but as authentic expressions of identity worth celebrating.
Digital payment products are functional by nature. Translating Klarna's 'smoooth' feeling — described as an emotion rather than a simple secure transaction — into advertising that resonates with a young audience required moving away from category conventions around security and simplicity.
Klarna is framed as an enabler of self-expression, offering empowerment as its central emotion and carrying the message to celebrate yourself whatever you love, are or cheer for, rather than positioning itself primarily as a payment utility.
The strategic premise is that young consumers form identification with brands through felt emotion and cultural recognition rather than through rational product claims. Co-creating tangible products with artists they already know gives the brand a credible entry into that emotional territory.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Joint campaign film (Sci-Fi/Western aesthetic, near-50-year-old classic track soundtrack)
  • Germany-wide out-of-home: billboards, transit stations, building wraps
  • Smoooth Lounge at Fashion Week (massages, selfie spots, branded experience)
  • Smoooth Lounge at Melt Festival (festival essentials, branded experience)
  • Custom Giphy stickers for organic social sharing
  • Digital activity (channel detail not specified in sources)

Partners

  • Dentsu Creative DACH (lead agency)
  • Yung Hurn (artist collaborator)
  • Alli Neumann (artist collaborator)
  • Apache 207 (artist collaborator)

Participation mechanic

  • Custom Giphy stickers enabling organic audience sharing
  • Live experiential spaces (Smoooth Lounge) at Fashion Week and Melt Festival with open participation via massages, selfie spots and festival essentials

Creator role

  • Yung Hurn, Alli Neumann and Apache 207 each co-created one 'struggle solver' product and appeared in the joint campaign film, functioning as cultural co-authors rather than endorsers

Results & Evidence

MetricValueResult typeConfidence
Out-of-home reach37MReachAgency reported
Digital activity reach3,300,000ReachAgency reported
Fashion Week reach1,500,000ReachAgency reported
Organic content reach600KReachAgency reported
Giphy sticker views6.6MImpressions / ViewsAgency reported
App downloads15,000ConversionAgency reported

Why Dentsu Creative's strategy worked

  1. 1

    Using recognisable cultural artists as co-creators rather than endorsers gave an abstract payment brand feeling a concrete, credible form that a skeptical young audience could identify with on its own terms.

  2. 2

    Naming the everyday contradictions of young German life with humour — vegan but wearing leather, minimalist but hoarding deliveries — created an empathy entry point that product-feature advertising in the payments category rarely achieves.

  3. 3

    A layered channel mix of broad out-of-home, targeted digital, live experiential and shareable stickers allowed the campaign to operate at both mass scale (37M OOH reach reported) and earned intimacy (6.6M Giphy sticker views reported), each format reinforcing rather than duplicating the others.

  4. 4

    Live events at culturally relevant moments — Fashion Week and Melt Festival — put the brand inside spaces its audience already chose to attend, generating reported reach of 1.5M in three days from the Fashion Week activation alone.

  5. 5

    Grounding the campaign in a single, repeatable emotional idea — empowerment through self-expression framed as 'smoooth' — gave diverse executions across channels and artist collaborations a coherent through-line without requiring identical creative treatment.

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