THE GREYEST DAY OF THE YEAR

TitleTHE GREYEST DAY OF THE YEAR
BrandHARTWALL
Product/ServiceHARTWALL ORIGINAL LONG DRINK
Category B06. Use of Events / Stunts
Entrant HARTWALL Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation BOB THE ROBOT Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation 2 MILTTON Helsinki, FINLAND
Media Placement DAGMAR Helsinki, FINLAND
PR MILTTON Helsinki, FINLAND
Production LATAAMO GROUP Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 2 COCOA Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 3 VEIKKO KäHKöNEN PHOTOGRAPHY Helsinki, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Antti Lehtinen Miltton Creative Strategist
Jan Sederlöf Bob the Robot Oy Copywriter
Hermanni Kanerva Bob the Robot Oy Art Director
Toni Tiusanen Bob the Robot Oy Creative Director
Inke-Maaria Ketonen Miltton Concept Designer
Mika Lehtoranta Dagmar Strategist

Why is this work relevant for Media?

Have you ever heard of anyone bold enough to brand the weather? Now you have. By tapping into Finnish sense of national pride Original Long Drink (colloquially also known as “grey”) was able to make Finns see their notoriously grey weather from a new and appreciative point of view. On the Greyest Day of the Year more than 200 000 Finns raised a grey toast to the grey sky, and as a result of the campaign Original Long Drink was able to brand the world’s biggest and most ambient advertising space – while getting around Finland’s strict alcohol advertising restrictions.

Background

Our campaign turned the grey Finnish sky into our own branded media. By tapping into Finnish sense of national pride Original Long Drink (known colloquially as “grey”) was able to make Finns see their notoriously grey weather from a new and appreciative point of view. On the Greyest Day of the Year more than 200 000 Finns raised a grey toast to the grey sky and as a result of the campaign Original Long Drink was able to brand the world’s biggest and most ambient advertising space – while getting around Finland’s strict alcohol advertising restrictions.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

The Greyest Day of the Year was a nationwide celebration that took place on November 17th, which is statistically the greyest day of the year in Finland. It was championed by Original Long Drink, a gin-based drink known among Finns as “Grey” because of its color. The aim of the campaign was to make Finns embrace what they cannot escape: the grey weather. This quirky, yet innovative, idea struck a chord with the normally reserved Finns and the campaign took Finland by storm. By making the grey weather and sky into a center point of our campaign we were ultimately able to brand it for ourselves.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

In order to turn the greyness into a nationwide discussion and a matter of national pride, we commissioned Finnish weather service Foreca to conduct a study on the matter. Unsurprisingly Finland was very high up on the list of greyest countries in the world: Helsinki is Europe’s greyest capital and Finland is the greyest country in Europe in November. This study was widely discussed in the media. When the conversation around the subject was at its loudest, we took over the conversation by introducing the Greyest Day of the Year, a new nationwide celebration that urged Finns to look at their gloomy weather from a new point of view – on the actual greyest day of the year (November 17th) which we were statistically able to determine.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The 60 second Greyest Day of the Year ad was first launched trough Very Finnish Problems -Facebook site where it went viral. We then launched the film on our own social media channels and television. We made a Facebook event for the day and its official pool party which began attracting thousands of interested people. As the day drew closer, we introduced more and more elements that built up hype (such as the events performers and a clothing line that was meant to keep people warm, yet stylish, on the greyest day). As the campaign turned into a nationwide movement more and more restaurants, bars and even competing brands announced that they are going to take part in the celebrations all in their own way. And when the day finally arrived on November 17th Finland went greyzy.

List the results (30% of vote)

According to the survey conducted after the Greyest Day of the Year more than 200 000 Finns took part in the celebrations (There are 4,5 million Finns above the legal drinking age of 18), and 10% of Finns said that they now primarily associate grey weather with Original Long Drink (and Finland has more than 150 grey days yearly). According to the same survey 400 000 Finns are going to take part in the celebrations next year. The campaign received more than 8 million media impressions in Finland and 170 million impressions globally. Original Long Drink reached its highest market share ever (52,9%). Compared to previous November sales rose by more than 114%. After the campaign sales have continued to correlate with the greyness of the weather.