Title	BRÄNDÄRIT (BUYTHIS)-A SITCOM WHERE A FICTIONAL AD AGENCY WORKS WITH REAL CLIENTS
Brand	GIGANTTI, PAULIG, ATRIA, FAZER, VIKINGLINE, METSÄTISSUE, LIDL, SONERA, NISSAN AN
Product/Service	TEN FAMOUS BRANDS IN FINLAND
Category	A01. FICTION: SERIES OR FILM
Entrant Company	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Contributing Company 2	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Contributing Company	MTV Helsinki, FINLAND
Production Company	FREMANTLE MEDIA Helsinki, FINLAND

Name	Company	Position
Theodor Arhio	TBWA/HELSINKI	Creative Director
Juha/Matti Raunio	TBWA/HELSINKI	Vice President
Eerika Vermilä	Fremantle Media	Managing Director
Ella Piesala	Fremantle Media	Executive Producer
Stinde Mäkinen	MTV Media	Commercial Director
Sarita Harma	MTV Media	Drama Director
Mia Kantakoski	MTV Media	Brand Manager
Jarkko Tuuri	TBWA/HELSINKI	Creative
Rike Jokela	Fremantle Media	Director Of The Sitcom
Lassi Vierikko	Fremantle Media	Scriptwriter Of The Sitcom
Markus Virpiö	Alsostarring	Director Of The Commercials
Nalle Sjöblad	Alsostarring	Director Of The Commercials
Teemu Niukkanen	Alsostarring	Director Of The Commercials
Johannes Lassila	Alsostarring	Director Of The Commercials

The Campaign

In Finland, the law regarding brand visibility in tv shows is very strict. It states that you have to separate the show content from advertising with a commercial break sign and brands aren't allowed to affect to the content of the show. On the other hand, Finland is a country of only 5.3million habitants and there aren't too many brands who have resources to produce high quality, branded content on air. Currently, most branded content is done online.

Results

Challenge TV is living it's golden age, the content is better than ever before. But, the awareness of tv-commercials has hit an all-time low. We have seen a decline from 2007 62% to today's 41% (Source: TNS advertising Atlas 2007-2013). To fight this, brands buy sponsorships on tv shows, which in reality means a logo on the wall or short taglines before and after the show. This is not enough to stop awareness from plummeting. Brands want to be a part of the content and they are desperately looking for new solutions to display their products and services. Brands have stories to tell and they want to become the media themselves, but only few have the resources to do so. Insight People love to talk about tv shows, but how could we get brands back into those conversations? Solution We created an entirely new way to do branded content on air: it's a platform where brands have an active role in a scripted sitcom called Brändärit. It tells the story of a fictional advertising agency, but here's the catch: in each episode, the ad agency creates real campaigns for brands like Nissan, global retailer Lidl and the telecom brand Sonera. The campaigns air for real right after the show. Participating brands bought a media package that included an active role in an episode, a TVC, online advertising and radio backed by a heavy rotation media campaign.

A Finnish version of Buythis! The Brändärit Sitcom was launched in August 2014 with a PR-event, tv trailer and a radio campaign. After the launch, each episode was boosted with an episode trailer and a tactical radio spots. Ten brands had their own episode in the show which they promoted in their own medias. This was a great extra boost for the show as these brands reach 1.3 million people in the country. We also created a website for this fictional ad agency (http://tinyurl.com/kpw6kul) and a social media presence (FB, Twitter), managed by the ad agency's fictional social media manager.

We got ten famous brands to play a role in the episodes and because they were part of the story, the brands were open to create crazy campaigns and stepped outside their comfort zone. MTV3, the biggest broadcaster in the Finland gave us their crown jewel slot – Sunday night primetime at 9pm. We exceeded our ratings objectives already in the second week by +30% (330 000 viewers), making Brändärit the 4th biggest scripted show on commercial television (Source: Finnpanel). Halfway through the first season, 1.6 million Finns have watched the series, which means that every third Finn has seen the Brändärit-show (Source: Finnpanel TV-meterpanel, AdEdge). A Finnish version of Buy This! Brändärit launched on Finland’s biggest commercial TV channel MTV3 in September 2014 and to Oct 9th, 2014 has performed above MTV3’s slot average having won shares of up to 22% amongst adults 15-24. Instead of low awareness, the commercials made news and tabloids, and are the topic of conversation nationwide and even in Germany!