Aussie owned Mirimar launches first work for global fintech Klarna’s major US brand launch

Global fintech pioneer Klarna is launching its biggest brand campaign in the U.S. to date, in partnership with creative agency ​Mirimar founded by Aussie expat John McKelvey.

The “Klarna: Swedish for smooother shopping” launch will lean into the company’s Swedish origins to introduce American consumers to the revolutionary online shopping service.

Launched on June 29 and continuing throughout the summer, the 360 integrated campaign features a unique series of online films, an interactive virtual shopping experience, brand and media partnerships, social media, podcasts and digital activations and promotions. Doubling down on Klarna’s Swedish origins, the film portion transforms over 50 years of Swedish cinema, TV and soap operas into entirely new stories with comically mismatched English subtitles. This same thinking informed the shoppable-entertainment interactive experiences, gaming integrations and social activations that will roll out across the summer.

Founded in 2005, Klarna offers products and services to consumers and retailers within payments, social shopping and personal finance. The campaign is part of its evolution from payments to delivering an end-to-end shopping service and app, which will introduce Americans to a smooother way of shopping online.

Says David Sandstrom, CMO, Klarna: “Klarna always strives to deliver more from our products and services—that’s what the extra ‘o’ in smoooth represents—and this campaign is no different. We aim to bring an element of entertainment to the shopping experience, so why wouldn’t we deliver more to our audiences in our marketing, too? We wanted to genuinely entertain and reflect the elevated shopping experience we’re bringing to U.S. shoppers in every aspect of this campaign.

Says Aussie expat John McKelvey, founder and chief creative officer, Mirimar: “It’s been exciting to partner with an innovative tech company like Klarna. They entrusted Mirimar to help build the brand here in the U.S., and from day one, we’ve shared ambitions to make great work together.”

The campaign was created during the Covid-19 pandemic. To pull it off, Klarna, Mirimar and renowned Swedish director Andreas Nilsson, represented locally by Revolver/ Will O’Rourke, collaborated remotely between New York, Stockholm and Los Angeles. (Nilsson directed parts of the campaign, shot on location in Stockholm).

Says Nilsson: “Not sure when I last saw an unusual project like this blossom into such a beautifully absurd campaign. Coming up with simple, brilliant and unique ideas like this is hard. Keeping them simple during the course of production is sometimes even harder. Thanks Mirimar and Klarna for sending me down the wormhole of nostalgic clips from my Swedish childhood. It’s been a trip.”

For Mirimar, the campaign represents the first work under its new agency banner. It was established in late 2019 by John McKelvey, who previously co-founded JohnxHannes, which was Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year in 2019. McKelvey and members of the Mirimar team previously developed work for Squarespace, as well as Expensify’s 2019 Super Bowl ad, brought extensive fintech experience to the campaign.

Says Luke McKelvey, co-founder and managing director, Mirimar: “Creating a global brand campaign during the pandemic was a challenge, but it forced us to think and create differently.”

Client: Klarna US
CMO: David Sandstrom
VP of Marketing: Daniel Jontén
Head of Marketing, U.S: Megan Gokey
Brand Lead: Joel Sussman
Supporting Brand Lead: Julia Grönstedt
Strategy Lead: Olivia Butter
Marketing Manager.: Elle Shaps
Social Lead: Mary Manzo
PR Lead: Sarah Ponthieu
Design Leads: Camilla Birkström, Matt Wenger, Pontus Gustavsson
Production Lead: Leo Holte

Agency: Mirimar – Los Angeles
Founder & Chief Creative Officer: John McKelvey
Co-founder & Managing Director: Luke McKelvey
Creative Director: Jon Marshall
Creative Director: Croix Gagnon
Design Director: Mariola Bruszewska
Head of Production: Kristine Ling
Digital Producer and Creative Technologist: Natalie Sun
Group Account Director: Julia Jahn
Group Account Director: Lily Waters
Account Director: Amy Farias
Head of Strategy: Alexa Calabro
Business Affairs: Nancy Espinal

Production: ​Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Andreas Nilsson
Partner / Managing Director: Shawn Lacy
Executive Producer: Holly Vega
Head of Production: Rachel Glaub / Sean Moody
Producer: Jay Veal
Producer, Sweden: Kalle Wettre
DP: Lasse Frank
Production Designer: Koja

Editorial: Arcade Edit
Editor: Geoff Hounsell
Assistant Editor(s): Fernando Raigoza, Harrison Draper
Managing Partner: Damian Stevens
Executive Producer: Crissy DeSimone
Senior Producer: Alexa Atkin

Audio Finishing: Barking Owl
Mixer: Mike Franklin
Creative Director: Kelly Bayett
Producer: Ashley Benton

Music: DeadMono
Composers: Fredrik Rinman / Malcolm Pardon

Visual Effects: Kevin
Lead Artist / Executive Creative Director: Tim Davies VFX
Producer: Andrew Cowderoy
Senior Executive Producer / Partner: Sue Troyan
2D Team: Steve Gibbons, Robert Murdock

Telecine: a52
Colorist: Daniel de Vue
Producer: Jenny Bright
EP: Thatcher Peterson

Digital Production: Wildlife
Creative Director / Co-Founder: Jake Friedman
Creative Director / Co-Founder: Scott Friedman
Executive Producer: Brandon Del Nero
Technical Director: Pavel Zagoskin
Front End Engineer: Josh Stearns
Senior Designer: Andrew Zaozirny
Senior Producer: Janell Faraj

Media agency: ​Noble People
Social media and influencer agency: ​Movement Strategy