Klarna, a payments brand that enables customers to buy goods in instalments, connected with the sneaker-loving community in the UK by launching a sneaker raffle that was entered using a consumer’s heartbeat, thus ensuring that bots were not able to manipulate the results.

Why it matters

Brands looking to connect with a specific community should solve an audience’s pain points, which is a sure-fire way of earning respect and consideration.

The audience-first strategy

  • Online raffles are often marred by the presence of bots, which can stop real-life sneakerheads from winning some of the most desirable footwear.
  • For its raffle, Klarna used the camera lenses of laptops and smartphones to read a user’s heartbeat, and thus ensure it could only be entered by humans.
  • After the raffle, Klarna launched Sneaker Deal Week, which implemented similar tech with its retail partners so that consumers could continue to benefit from enticing deals.

The results

The raffle led to a 40% sales increase among retail partners and attracted widespread PR coverage. It also won Gold at the 2020 DMA Awards.

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Sourced from WARC