FORTUM CIRCO® HANDLE

TitleFORTUM CIRCO® HANDLE
BrandFORTUM
Product/ServiceFORTUM CIRCO® RECYCLED PLASTIC
Category A06. Consumer Services / Business to Business
Entrant TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Idea Creation TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
PR TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Credits
Name Company Position
Jussi Mälkiä Fortum Brand Manager
Aki Koskinen Fortum Vice President, Brand
Jyrki Poutanen TBWA\Helsinki Chief Creative Officer
Anna Masalin TBWA\Helsinki Executive Account Director
Ville Ohtonen TBWA\Helsinki Creative Director
Satu Heikkonen TBWA\Helsinki Account Manager
Juhana Hokkanen TBWA\Helsinki Innovation Director
Umberto Onza TBWA\Helsinki Lead Innovation Designer
Teemu Lappalainen TBWA\Helsinki Art Director
Melissa Kuitunen TBWA\Helsinki Content Producer
Saana Sundberg TBWA\Helsinki Junior Communication Specialist
Lara Ala-Olla TBWA\Helsinki Designer
Fanny Haga TBWA\Helsinki Photographer
Eemeli Tani TBWA\Helsinki Manager, Performance & Analytics
Ellen Lindbom TBWA\Helsinki Data & Insight Trainee
Tuukka Tikkanen TBWA\Helsinki Film Producer
Mikko Kuoppasalmi TBWA\Helsinki Editor
Mikko Pietilä TBWA\Helsinki Executive Creative Director
Erno Reinikainen TBWA\Helsinki Creative Director
Mikko Kaivo-oja TBWA\Helsinki Associate Creative Director

Why is this work relevant for PR?

For Fortum, the biggest plastic recycler in the Nordics, the only way to reach the global plastic manufacturers is earned media. A global bought media campaign would be impossible budget-wise. That’s why the Fortum Circo@ Handle was planned first and foremost to attract media attention.

Background

Clean-energy company Fortum is also the leading producer of recycled plastic in the Nordics. They collect waste plastic from both consumer packaging waste and industrial waste, grind it and manufacture Fortum Circo® plastic pellets, a versatile recycled raw material for nearly any plastic products. In its home market Finland, Fortum is only known as an energy company. The brief was to raise awareness about Fortum Circo® plastics and to enforce the perception of Fortum as a circular economy company. Originally, the brief was met with two ideas which both involved a presence in large global events in 2020. As Covid-19 hit the world in spring 2020, it was soon evident that the whole campaign had to be rethought in the radically new circumstances. The original campaign ideas involving entertainment felt not only impossible to execute, but also too light in approach.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

Fortum quickly realized one issue it could help with: hand hygiene on surfaces in public places. Especially door and cabinet handles in stores get touched by thousands of clients every day, making them hotspots for infections. Electric doors with motion detectors would have solved the problem, but switching every single door and cabinet in every store would have taken months (if not years) and cost billions per country. That’s why Fortum created the Fortum Circo® Handle: a simple add-on suiting all types of existing door handles, allowing people to open doors with their arm, minimizing touching the handles with their palms and fingers. It not only prevents infections, but also helps disabled, who have trouble grabbing handles or lack finger strength, open doors more easily. Fortum Circo® Handle is manufactured from Fortum’s 100% recycled Circo® plastic, using no virgin materials.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Our PR strategy relied heavily on recognizing our key messages and tailoring them to potential media. In this case we identified multiple potential media e.g. general media, retail media, design media, tech media and sustainability media. We then proceeded to think our case from each of their points of view, while keeping the focus relevant to Fortum’s brand and their Fortum Circo® business. For certain media the key message revolved more around recycled plastics as a material; for more general ones around the overall Covid-19 situation in Finland and globally. In addition to tailoring the key messages we also modified all the materials from press releases to images and videos depending on the media. To gain the maximum earned media attention we created relevant outlet and contact lists for different angles in Cision and hand-picked the most relevant journalists to be contacted personally.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

When the first prototype was done, we began our PR process. Within two weeks we had everything ready. We started with identifying our key messages and possible angles before proceeding to manually scan the media for trending topics relevant to the case. We then chose 10–20 biggest and most relevant media for each angle and then hand-picked 2-3 journalists from each media to be contacted with a personalized email the day of the launch. Medias and journalists were chosen both from Finland and global news outlets. The press release was tailored to each of the angles and the team chose the most describing pictures to the press kit. Since Fortum Circo® Handle is a physical product, a video was included to best demonstrate the Handle in action. In addition to personalized pitching, we created media outlet and contact lists for each angle in Cision to mass distribute the press release.

List the results (30% of vote)

In a matter of days, news of the Fortum Circo® Handle reached the media globally. Over 170 news media in 93 countries wrote about it, including the likes of Fox News and New York Post, the reach being 327 997 597 and earned media value 3 029 715 €. In a matter of weeks, over 120 retail and manufacturing companies from around the world contacted Fortum about ordering Fortum Circo® Handles or about collaborating in mass producing them from Fortum Circo®. And after only 1,5 months of the launch, the Finnish design icon Fiskars Group agreed to start mass manufacturing and selling the Handles globally. The deal with Fiskars not only makes infection preventing handles available at scale everywhere, but it also acts as a powerful reference for Fortum Circo®: if an appreciated design company approved Circo® as their raw material, it encourages future clients to give Circo® a chance, too.