Klarna's CMO Tells Brands to Stop 'Drinking the Kool-Aid' of Fandom
Updated: Sep 1
TL;DR: Klarna's departing CMO David Sandström says most brands are 'drinking the Kool-Aid' of fandom and pop culture — they'd win faster by being useful, and being themselves.
What Sandström actually said
In an interview with Marketing Week published on 21 August 2026, Klarna CMO David Sandström accused peers of chasing an imaginary status as 'part of pop culture'. His verbatim quote: 'There are too many brands that believe they have fans or are part of pop culture, they're just not.' He added, pointedly, 'I would never say I think that Klarna has fans, we don't.'
His fix: 'Many would benefit from not drinking this Kool-Aid of having to force themselves into culture, but rather being what they are, being true to their brand.' The interview lands as Sandström prepares to leave after nine years at the fintech, in one of the marketing industry's most-watched CMO exits of the year.
Why the timing matters
Klarna has spent the last decade doing exactly the opposite of what Sandström is now preaching, working with Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton and A$AP Rocky. That contradiction is the point: he is calling from the far side of the experiment, telling the market that culture-first tactics buy attention but rarely build defensible preference.
The broader context is that a wave of 'utility brands' — Monzo, Klarna, Deliveroo, Uber — are moving into brand-building mode as growth flattens. The temptation to over-index on culture is highest at exactly the moment when discipline pays most: WARC's own numbers show emotional brand-building outperforms culture-jacking on long-term ROI 3-to-1.
Marketing Minute's read
Sandström's point is a useful challenge to every planner who has ever written a 'brand universe' deck. If your product doesn't earn the fandom on its own merits, no celebrity, film premiere or Fortnite skin will manufacture it. The winning move for most brands is to be so useful you become an unavoidable habit — then let culture come to you.
For UK marketers, this maps directly onto the current climate. With ad recovery uneven and Bellwether budgets cautious, the highest-leverage move is not another fandom stunt, it is a clearer, sharper brand: fewer messages, more consistency, ruthless focus on the thing your product actually does better than anyone else.
Quick FAQ
Q: Who is David Sandström?
A: David Sandström is the CMO of Klarna and has led the fintech's marketing for nearly a decade. He announced his departure earlier this year.
Q: What is Sandström's key argument?
A: That most brands wrongly chase 'fandom' and pop-culture relevance when they'd be better served being clear about what they are and doing that brilliantly.
Q: Why is this notable?
A: Because Klarna itself has famously worked with celebrities and cultural moments — the outgoing CMO is publicly re-evaluating a decade of his own strategy.
Sandström is right that most brands are not culture. But 'utility with a personality' is a hard brief — Klarna could pull it off because the product genuinely simplifies checkout. If your product doesn't, fandom fantasy is often what CMOs use to cover for that. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
The takeaway: fandom is not a brand strategy for most brands — utility with a personality is, and it's harder.
Is your brand really loved, or just noticed? The honest answer usually rewrites the next campaign brief.
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Marketing Week, The Drum, Adweek.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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