Title	HÄN – HOW THE FINNISH GENDER NEUTRAL PRONOUN BECAME A SYMBOL FOR A MORE EQUAL WO
Brand	FINLAND PROMOTION BOARD
Product/Service	FINLAND
Category	B05. Corporate Purpose & Social Responsibility
Entrant	MILTTON Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation	MILTTON Helsinki, FINLAND
Idea Creation 2	MILTTON CREATIVE Helsinki, FINLAND
Production	MILTTON Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 2	MILTTON CREATIVE Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 3	VIDEOLLE PRODUCTIONS Helsinki, FINLAND
Production 4	DUOTONE OY Helsinki, FINLAND
Post Production	MILTTON Helsinki, FINLAND
Post Production 2	MILTTON CREATIVE Helsinki, FINLAND
Additional Company	AUCOR OY Turku, FINLAND

Name	Company	Position
Ulla Helander	Miltton	Senior Communications Consultant
Anni Hurme	Miltton	Account Manager
Satu Kanninen	Miltton	Account Director
Mikko Hakkarainen	Miltton	Creative Director
Ville Blåfield	Miltton	Director
Panu Mäenpää	Miltton	Account Director
Elina Niemistö	Miltton	Lead Creative
Ellaveera Björk	Miltton	Art Director
Maria Kuorikoski	Miltton	Copywriter
Anna Hiltunen	Miltton	Copywriter
Gino de la Paz	Miltton	Senior Copywriter
Dan Rider	Miltton	Copywriter
Anni Sirkka	Miltton	Graphic Designer
Hanna Valle	Miltton	Graphic Designer
Finn Anderson	Videolle Oy	Director
Tuomas Vuori	Videolle Oy	CEO
KP Wilkman	Videolle Oy	Producer
Sofia Okkonen	Duotone Oy	Photographer
Veera Almila	Duotone Oy	Producer
Alina Saari	Aucor Oy	COO

Why is this work relevant for Creative Strategy?

Equality is a core value for Finland and its people. In 2019, Finland Promotion Board wanted to discuss the Finnish track record of building an equal society in a novel and inspiring way. The words we use shape the world we live in. But when it comes to equality, our language has an advantage: a gender-neutral personal pronoun, hän. In our campaign, we built hän into a symbol of equality. Hän is the inclusive Finnish pronoun that stands for equal opportunity. It's a symbol for a better world where people are not defined by their background, gender or appearance.

Background

Equality is a core value for Finland and its people. In Finland, everyone is entitled to be treated equally, enabling them to belong, participate and achieve their full potential. Finland Promotion Board, coordinated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, gathers together the different organizations that work with the Finnish country brand. It also steers the country brand work and, for example, decides the larger umbrella themes for each year. In 2019, Finland Promotion Board wanted to highlight Finland’s exceptional track record of building an equal society. There is still work to be done for a more equal society, but the Finnish story has many elements to share with the world. Therefore, we built “Hän”, the gender-neutral Finnish personal pronoun, into a symbol of equality.

Interpretation (30% of vote)

Finland Promotion Board raises the international profile of issues that are important to Finnish people and brings Finland’s story to the world. In 2019, FPB wanted to discuss Finland's track record of building an equal society in a novel and inspiring way. Finland has reinvented itself in just one short century – and we’re still at it. We believe in equality, and that has boosted us to the top of many country rankings from quality of life to best countries in the world for women and girls. Finland’s success is closely linked to improvements in equality. The main goal was to position Finland as a leading country in equality issues and as a cooperation-oriented actor in complex issues related to gender – and create global discussion around this. The target audience was global – especially the 15 countries defined as key target markets for the Finnish country brand work.

Insight / Breakthrough Thinking (30% of vote)

In 2019, the English language world especially was coming to terms with the fact that language itself affects how we see the world around us. Languages aren’t equal constructs, but they could be better – language changes and evolves in use. To further pinpoint the urgency of the discourse, Merriam-Webster chose the word “they” as a singular pronoun (translates to “hän”) as 2019’s word of the year: “A pronoun like ‘they’ is one of the building blocks of the language – and ‘they’ is a word that is in flux.” We broke through when realizing the goldmine lying under our very feet: we needed to tell the story of Finnish equality through our very own gender-neutral pronoun “hän” that has existed since the dawn of our language. In our campaign, we built “hän” into a symbol for a better world where people are not defined by their background, gender, appearance.

Creative Idea (20% of vote)

The words we use shape the world we live in. Approximately 80% of the words in Finnish language originate from other languages. But when it comes to equality, our language has an advantage: a gender-neutral personal pronoun, hän. In the Finnish language, personal pronouns do not specify whether the person discussed is a woman or a man. One word – hän – refers to women, men and people of other genders alike. In our campaign, we built hän into a symbol of equality. Hän is the inclusive Finnish pronoun that stands for equal opportunity. It's a symbol for a better world where people are not defined by their background, gender or appearance. The campaign targeted a global audience – especially 15 countries defined as key target markets for the Finnish country brand work. Therefore, we focused on these target markets.

Outcome / Results (20% of vote)

The campaign was rolled out internationally from June 2019 onwards. Our goal was to reach wide media coverage to target both the general public internationally as well as decision makers. A key resource for distributing our message internationally were the almost 200 Finnish embassies and consulates around the world. Together with FPB, we created materials (such as press releases, outdoor ads, social media posts, Hän Honours) that the embassies distributed in their own channels. The Guardian praised the “quirky campaign” as an example of Finland’s track record in gender equality. Throughout the year the campaign received exceptional coverage in international media (China, Japan, France, Egypt, Singapore), reaching a total of almost 22 million people worldwide (Meltwater study). - 21.8 M media reach - Over 200,000 organic views for the video - Over 3,700 reactions, shares - Over 20 embassies worldwide have presented the Hän Honours

Please tell us how the brand purpose inspired the work

Equality is a core value for Finland and its people. Finland Promotion Board raises the international profile of issues that are important to Finnish people and brings Finland’s story to the world. In 2019, Finland Promotion Board wanted to discuss the Finnish track record of building an equal society in a novel way. Finland has reinvented itself in just one short century – and we’re still at it. We believe in equality and that has boosted us to the top of all kinds of country rankings from quality of life to best countries in the world for women and girls. The success of Finland is closely linked to improvements in equality. In our campaign, we built hän into a symbol of equality. Hän is the inclusive Finnish pronoun that stands for equal opportunity. It's a symbol for a better world where people are not defined by their background, gender or