Title	MATCH MADE IN HEL
Brand	FINNAIR AND FINAVIA
Product/Service	FINNAIR FLIGHTS AND HELSINKI AIRPORT AS CONNECTION HUB
Category	A03. Online: Fiction & Non-Fiction
Entrant	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Idea Creation	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Idea Creation 2	MIRUM AGENCY Helsinki, FINLAND
Media Placement	DAGMAR Helsinki, FINLAND
PR	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Production	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Production 2	MIRUM AGENCY Helsinki, FINLAND
Additional Company	FINAVIA Vantaa, FINLAND
Additional Company 2	FINNAIR Vantaa, FINLAND

Name	Company	Position
Katja Siberg	Finavia	SVP Marketing, Corporate Communications and Customer Experience, CMO
Anna Tuomi	Finavia	Head of Marketing
Olli Lehtonen	Finavia	Digital Marketing Manager
Rosa Kojonkoski	Finavia	Project Manager
Hanna Seppä	Finnair	Marketing Manager Asia
Susanne Nyman	Finnair	Head of Global Brand & Marketing Communications
Johanna Jäkelä	Finnair	CMO and VP Brand, Marketing & Customer Loyalty
Heidi Cheng	Finnair	Marketing Consultant
Tuire Melander	Finnair	Marketing Consultant
Joni Tillström	Finnair	Digital Marketing Manager
Tiina Leppänen	Finnair	Marketing and Production Consultant
Mikko Pietilä	TBWA\Helsinki	Executive Creative Director
Simone Bocedi	TBWA\Helsinki	Senior Content Strategist
Annika Wiksten	TBWA\Helsinki	Account Manager
Lili Ermezei	Mirum Agency	Chief Experience Officer
Vanessa Bade	Mirum Agency	Account Director
Timo Silvennoinen	Mirum Agency	Senior Copywriter
Bruno Leo Ribeiro	Mirum Agency	Senior Art Director
Joni Furstenborg	TBWA\Helsinki	Art Director
Virpi Grönlund	TBWA\Helsinki	Client Partner
Henrietta Tastula	TBWA\Helsinki	Content Producer
Tuija Torikka	Mirum Agency	Web Developer
Mya Rydman	Mirum Agency	Designer
Joel Wiren	Mirum Agency	Motion Designer and Web Developer
Annika Hätönen	Dagmar	Strategist
Johanna Pekari	Dagmar	Strategist
Sirke Käkelä	Dagmar	Client Manager
Mikko Mantere	Dagmar	Digital Manager
Henriikka Ylärakkola	Dagmar	Digital Manager
Lauri Permanto	Dagmar	Digital Planner
Juhana Hokkanen	TBWA\Helsinki	Head of Innovation Technology

Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

Match Made in HEL is an example of modern companies using branded entertainment to tell more emotional stories and reach an even wider audience around the world. Finnair and Helsinki Airport have been connecting East and West for 35 years via Helsinki. To celebrate this milestone and show the smoothness of travelling via Helsinki, we created a short film, the first one of its kind – made by an airline and an airport. The short film East and West Side Story speaks of meaningful encounters that take place when people travel.

Background

Finnair and Helsinki Airport have been making great efforts in recent years to raise awareness of Finland as a destination and increase the number of passengers flying via Helsinki. However, there are still far too many travelers both in East and West who don’t know that flying via Helsinki is as smooth and fast as it is. We had to strengthen the "via Helsinki" concept as a connecting point, communicating our expertise of connecting East and West, both physically and culturally, in an engaging way with the power of storytelling. Among other KPIs, the aim was to reach at least 100 million people around the world, accumulate 5 million video views and have more than 100 media articles globally written on the campaign. The more people hear and write about traveling via Helsinki, the better it is for business, meaning an increased number of passengers.

Describe the creative idea

East and West are very different culturally. How can we effectively communicate to both worlds that traveling via Helsinki is as smooth as it is? We decided to use storytelling as a universal language: we made a short film about meaningful encounters that take place when people travel. The short film East and West Side Story has two directors, one from the East and one from the West, showing two different point-of-views, merging into a beautiful story.

Describe the strategy

Finnair and Helsinki Airport have been connecting East and West via Helsinki every day for over 35 years. This is why everything that we have done for the campaign had to have two sides, and a connection point in the middle. The film used split screen to show two sides of the story, one from the East and one from the West. We had one director from Korea and one from Sweden, and each shot his point of view of the story. We also treated the campaign as an actual film: seeding PR to film industry media and promoting it with trailers and behind-the-scenes material. We kept the interest high by sharing different media and user reviews on social media and entering the film to film festivals. Granted entrance to film festivals will mean Match Made in HEL is accepted as an actual film and not an ad.

Describe the execution

We made a short film and decided to market the campaign as if it was an actual film. We launched it with a teaser trailer and a press release a month before launch. The main trailer was followed by various social media content, as supporting teasers, to increase the hype around the film release. We directed the users to matchmadeinhel.com, the hub of the content, developed to represent a usual movie website. The movie premiered in an exclusive event in the connection city, Helsinki, where we turned an aircraft hangar into a movie theater for one night. We invited influencers and journalists from East and West to watch the film, write reviews and share their experiences. Our main PR efforts concentrated here as well, as many of the most important news outlets were at the premiere.

Describe the outcome

Without a significant media budget, we relied on active PR seeding and efficient influencer mechanics to meet our KPIs. The videos were watched over 11.5 million times altogether, reaching 273 million people around the world. The influencers we invited at the premiere contributed to more than 1300 social media posts, reaching over 1 million users. Most importantly, they all spent several days in Finland, promoting the country and the city of Helsinki as the midpoint for several days. The PR worked. More than 179 articles were written about the campaign in over 50 countries for a value of over $2 million, succeeding in standing out from its competitors in a unique way. A film has a longer lifespan than a regular campaign, and we're expecting to increase these numbers every time we are granted access to a film festival.