RENT A FINN

TitleRENT A FINN
BrandBUSINESS FINLAND / VISIT FINLAND
Product/ServiceDESTINATION FINLAND
Category A04. Travel, Leisure, Retail, Restaurants & Fast Food Chains
Entrant SEK | PART OF GREY Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation SEK | PART OF GREY Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation 2 BUSINESS FINLAND Helsinki, FINLAND
Media Placement DAGMAR Helsinki, FINLAND
PR SEK | PART OF GREY Helsinki, FINLAND
PR 2 BUSINESS FINLAND Helsinki, FINLAND
Production SEK | PART OF GREY Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 2 COCOA Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 3 CREUNA FINLAND Helsinki, FINLAND
Additional Company HINTSA PERFORMANCE Helsinki, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Mira Vierto SEK | PART OF GREY Head of Client Group
Suvi Lähde SEK | PART OF GREY Creative Director
Jarno Luotonen SEK | PART OF GREY Creative Director
Per Pedersen Grey Grey Global Creative Chairman
Eduardo Maduri GREY Grey Europe Creative Chairman
Kimi Issakainen SEK | PART OF GREY Art Director
Antti Tuominen SEK | PART OF GREY Copywriter
Laura Saarinen SEK | PART OF GREY Project Director
Essi Orama SEK | PART OF GREY Communications Consultant
Erika Vierto SEK | PART OF GREY Project Manager
Nicolas Prieto SEK | PART OF GREY Agency Producer
Ville Koivisto SEK | PART OF GREY Project Director
Vesa Tiukkanen SEK | PART OF GREY Editor
Jerry Strengell Jerry Strengell Editor
Santeri Kekkonen SEK | PART OF GREY Art Director
Alexsandra Piela SEK | PART OF GREY Assistant Art Director
Sami Kelahaara SEK | PART OF GREY Creative Director
Otto Kilpiö SEK | PART OF GREY Copywriter
Miikka Vento SEK | PART OF GREY Junior Copywriter
Heli Jimenez Visit Finland / Business Finland Senior Director, International Marketing
Mervi Holmén Visit Finland/Business Finland Marketing Communications Manager
Hetta Huittinen Visit Finland / Business Finland Head of International Media and PR
Eevakaisa Mölsä Visit Finland / Business Finland PR and Media Manager
Joonas Halla Visit Finland / Business Finland PR and Media Manager
Sari Hey Visit Finland / Business Finland PR and Media Manager
Heli Hemgård Visit Finland / Business Finland Communications Manager
Ville Huumo Creuna Finland CTO
Igor Buyanov Creuna Finland Senior Web Developer
Markus Karikivi Creuna Finland Project Director
Annika Muhonen Dagmar Senior Digital Planner
Markus Vuorinen Dagmar Digital Strategist
Noora Pyörre Dagmar Digital Planner
Liisa Marjoniemi Dagmar Client Manager
Tom Hakala Cocoa Mediaproductions Director
Henri Ollinkari Cocoa Mediaproductions Executive Producer
Anita Hyppönen Cocoa Mediaproductions Production Manager
Antti Ahokoivu Cocoa Mediaproductions Cinematographer
Jukka Honkanen Cocoa Mediaproductions Editor
Joni Kuusisto Cocoa Mediaproductions Color Grade
Markku Mäkelä Cocoa Mediaproductions Sound design and sound mix
Jukka Honkanen Cocoa Mediaproductions Sound design and sound mix
Markus Packalen Cocoa Mediaproductions Set designer
Marek Sabogal Cocoa Mediaproductions Photographer
Ed Webster GREY Creative
Cherish de Tagle TOWN Producer

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

According to the UN, Finland is the happiest country in the world – thanks to people’s special nature connection that is said to have a positive impact on us. At the same time, the world is getting busier and people are searching for their calm. Well, Finns know the lifestyle. But how to teach the world the way? The idea that converts people to media: Rent a Finn. To become as happy as a Finn, you can rent one and learn. Our idea is turning over 6 million Finns to work media executions for travelers to grasp our brand experience.

Background

Visit Finland is a governmental organization that works continuously to develop Finland’s travel image. Travel marketing is a highly competitive business; small country like Finland can’t afford to compete with the media budgets of big destinations to attract attention. However, the industry communication is full of clichés in both the visual style and content. Breaking these conventions offers us a huge opportunity. Finland is an unconventional travel destination – not something for everyone but something special. Accordingly, our communication has always been designed to convey these distinguishing factors true to Finland to make us stand out. In 2018, the overnight stays were on the rise, but the ongoing battle for attention in the Nordic countries was fierce. Our task was to create awareness and interest towards Finland and make it a talking point in a way that is truly meaningful to people who are seeking unique options.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

According to the UN, Finland is the happiest country in the world – thanks to the special connection between people and nature. Studies have shown that nature can have a positive impact on our minds and alleviate stress. At the same time, the world is getting busier. Many travelers search for silence and serene nature. Well, Finland has those things in abundance. But how to teach the world this happy, close-to-nature lifestyle? The idea: Rent a Finn. Now it’s time everyone had a chance to learn from the best. To become as happy as a Finn, you can rent one and learn how. Rent a Finn is not only unique and ownable to Finland due to its rational background from the UN Happiness Report, but also meaningful because of its higher purpose of bringing more happiness to the world. Instead of simply selling tourism, it’s branding a whole nation.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The target group for Finland is people whose values match travelling to Finland. This group is known as “Modern Humanists”. How to reach them with a very limited budget and appeal to them, as they are extremely critical towards advertising? To reach our global audience, we needed to mobilize the whole nation: 1. To do this, we launched a nationwide initiative that recruited Finns up for rent. This was supported with bought online advertising. 2. The content of Finns that were up for rent was fed to global media with PR and selected internationally known Finnish spokespersons. The visibility was supported with online advertising mostly directed to social media, where stressed workers were reachable during their breaks. 3. When the story got picked up by the global media, we focused on creating content for PR use, monitoring earned media developments and reacting along the way.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Rent a Finn kicked off in January 2019, when the website rentafinn.com built around recruiting Finns was launched. We selected a few Finns to work with, as the faces of our communication, introducing the Finnish way of life, the connection to nature and the idea of renting a Finn. The execution didn’t only depend on the website. The goal was to create a phenomenon where anybody could put themselves up for rent in their own channels by using a #rentafinn. – Or just offer to spend some time with a traveler when encountering one. People around the world got introduced to the idea through high PR visibility reaching 149 countries. The reach was supported with bought advertising in social media covering 10 countries. The idea of renting a Finn is now launched and continues as a new travel habit in the future between people.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign reached 149 countries with paid advertising in only 10 markets. The campaign reach raised as high as 1,366 billion – 98,5% coming from earned media. The PR value of the campaign reached € 34 175 321. The number of media hits was 3184. We managed to build our social community with 12 488 new followers in total.