Klarna’s Karma on Black Friday: When AI Devours Marketing
Klarna, the Swedish payments giant, has taken a revolutionary approach to its marketing strategy by handing over complete control of 30 campaigns across 45 countries to generative AI. This bold experiment not only demonstrated the creative potential of AI but also showcased its ability to deliver significant business impact.
Traditionally, large-scale campaigns require vast resources for localised imagery, nuanced translations, and culturally resonant content. Klarna’s AI-driven campaigns streamlined this process dramatically. Tools like MidJourney and Firefly were employed to create visuals, replacing traditional production pipelines and eliminating the need for stock imagery. These innovations reduced the production cycle from six weeks to just seven days while ensuring high-quality, brand-aligned content.
“Historically, we had to pay an agency or an artist to bring these ideas to life. We’ve saved millions on that ideation process alone,” Klarna’s CMO, David Sandstrom, said.
The results speak volumes. Marketing costs were slashed by 11% in Q1 2024, amounting to approximately $10 million in savings. This includes a $6 million reduction in image production costs and $4 million saved on external suppliers for tasks like translations and CRM management. Beyond cost savings, the AI campaigns delivered outstanding engagement metrics, with some email click-through rates surging by up to 400%.
This strategy allowed the company to scale personalised marketing for events such as Mother’s Day and Black Friday without the logistical bottlenecks of traditional workflows. AI didn’t just match human-created campaigns in quality—it often surpassed them in both creativity and performance.
This experiment underscores a pivotal moment in designing marketing strategies: generative AI isn’t just a brutally efficient cost-cutting tool but a driver of innovation and growth, redefining how brands connect with their audiences. The ability to maintain brand integrity while scaling creative output could nudge other brands to rethink their marketing strategies, proving that AI has moved from being an experiment to a competitive necessity. The challenge now is ensuring these innovations remain rooted in the human-centred principles that underpin great design.
Is your brand ready to embrace AI as a co-creator?
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