Pivot has become a ‘pivotal’ word at MINT since the Covid-19 outbreak changed our lives. As research and insight nerds, we have spent a large portion of our iso-time investigating current perceptions and behaviours and ideating against how our brands can adapt to suit the changing market. The below is an account of that exact work for our loved fin-tech client Klarna, which has just been shortlisted for the Mumbrella Marketing Award for Insight.
How do you launch a brand that encourages you to spend money, mid-Covid19?
MINT launched Klarna, the world’s largest buy now pay later shopping app, to Australia in February 2020 with a brand awareness campaign called “Get What You Love”. And then the world changed.
Telling people to spend money was no longer a sensitive message, however we uncovered an emerging insight through our research into Covid shopping behaviours and consumer sentiment studies:
A seemingly contradictory insight was uncovered:
Insight: As salaries go down and our local community suffers, people are spending MORE, panic buying frivolous things driven by emotional stress and the search for comfort and control.
Our strategy: Create brand awareness and affinity by positioning Klarna as supporting consumers and business’ in a way that is helpful, relevant and sensitive to the times.
A payment platform that encourages you to spend less!
Knowing that consumers need to see the same message consistently to log a new brand, we shifted our campaign message only slightly:
From: Get What You Love (encouraging spending)
To: Get What You Really Love. (encouraging people to shop better, not more)
The Klarna promise was this: We will help you get what you love, BUT we stand for mindful spending of your money. We want you to support local like we do and we want you to care about yourself the way we care about you.
Kübler-Ross’ Grief Cycle shows us that during the 5 stages, we need to receive 3 things:
- Information and Communication
- Emotional Support
- Guidance and Direction
From this we developed 3 communications pillars:
- Mindful Money – encouraging smart and informed spending decisions
- #KlarnaKare – emotional support provided via empathy and escape
- Support Local – Financially supporting Australian brands, while using their channels to grow ours
‘Get what you really love’.
Spend MINDFULLY. Buy things that you CARE about from quality LOCAL brands.
With the shifting landscape, came some opportunities:
- Social platforms saw a rapid rise while ad costs became cheaper People of influence became more accessible
- Digital TV, podcasts, music and video streaming platforms boomed
The Execution:
- Mindful Money: Engaged finance ambassador Canna Campbell, SugarMamma.TV to show people how to use Klarna for savvy spending
- #KlarnaKare: Partnered with Universal Music to create a light-hearted parody song and video staring Australian musicians and comedians to help people curb their frivolous spending (https://youtu.be/GWNX256wchQ )
- Support Local: Signed content curator Kellie Hush, Harpers Bazaar and sponsored #WeWearAustralian and AddToCart podcast
The Outcome:
A huge spike in app downloads within two months of the campaign being live and a host of new merchants signing up to use Klarna.
