Title	BACKSTAGE COLLECTION
Brand	TAVASTIA
Product/Service	LIVE ROCK CLUB
Category	G08. Market Disruption
Entrant	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Idea Creation	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Production	OY VALLILA INTERIOR AB Helsinki, FINLAND

Name	Company	Position
Jyrki Poutanen	TBWA\Helsinki	Chief Creative Officer
Erno Reinikainen	TBWA\Helsinki	Executive Creative Director
Ville Ohtonen	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative Director
Annika Wikstén	TBWA\Helsinki	Account Director
Lasse Kangasmaa	TBWA\Helsinki	Senior Creative
Iida Korhonen	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative
Lauri Gran	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative
Joonas Vähäkallio	TBWA\Helsinki	Art Director
Juhana Hokkanen	TBWA\Helsinki	Innovation Director
Saana Simander	TBWA\Helsinki	PR Specialist
Juuli Nyberg	Vallila Interior	New Business and Sales Innovation Manager
Anne Berner	Vallila Interior	Chief Executive Officer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

The Backstage Collection offered rock fans a brand new way of experiencing a place, they would never get to actually visit: the backstage of Tavastia, Europe's oldest rock club. The Collection includes a wide variety of products for people to use at home, decorate their home with, to wear and carry around. It also helps the club, which lost all its revenue due to covid-19 restrictions, to keep operating.

Background

Founded in 1970, Tavastia is Europe's longest running live rock club. 2020 was meant to be the celebration of its 50th anniversary, with numerous special gigs throughout the year. But as covid-19 imposed heavy restrictions, the club had to shut down for most of 2020 and for most of 2021. It not only canceled all planned concerts, but also put the club's economy in jeopardy – would this be the end of the legendary club, which has hosted the likes of Foo Fighters, Ellie Goulding, Muse, 50 Cent and Nick Cave? Our brief was to come up with an alternative possibility of celebrating the 50th anniversary. A possibility, which would allow everyone in Finland to join without coming to the actual club. Something, that could be planned and executed with a budget of less than 20 000 €.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

The backstage room of Tavastia is the most famous rock n' roll shrine in Finland. It's famous for its backstage walls, which bear the autographs of world famous stars from five decades, but as access is strictly limited to the stars, only a few have actually visited it. As Tavastia couldn't invite the Finnish rock fans to the club, the celebrations had to take place somewhere else – in everyone's homes. Thus The Backstage Collection was born to bring Tavastia to everyone: A line of home interior products: sheets, curtains, rugs, mugs, umbrellas, t-shirts, et cetera revealed the walls of Tavastia's famous backstage with all of its autographs.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

As Tavastia is an iconic club, which the entire nation knows and respects, the campaign was targeted at the general public. The entire public of Finland was to be reminded and inspired by it. In addition, as the profit of the Backstage Collection was vital to securing the financial survival of the club, we needed to appeal to music fans, who were the most likely audience to purchase products from the collection. As the budget (below 20 000 €) was minimal, we had to rely heavily on earned media and word of mouth, instead of bought media advertising. We also needed a companion to make the products.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

The first and most vital part of the execution was to find a proper partner to actually design, produce and sell the collection. Vallila Interior, a Finnish homeware icon, whose headquarters is located only a few kilometres from Tavastia in downtown Helsinki, felt like the best match. Luckily, they felt the same. Thus, two iconic brands from Helsinki joined forces. As soon as Vallila was onboard, the designs were ready within two months from the start of the project. The physical production of the Collection took a further 2 months. Since Vallila Interior is a Finnish homeware icon, the Backstage Collection immediately got a nationwide retail distribution in the biggest wholesellers and supermarkets in Finland. It is also sold in Vallila's and Tavastia's web stores.

List the results (30% of vote)

The Backstage Collection was immediately a hot topic in Finland's biggest newspapers and on social media. The reach of the press coverage alone was 9 014 377 in a country with 5 600 000 inhabitants. The first batch of products were soon sold out and people were extremely enthusiastic to show off their Backstage Collection products on social media. The lasting impact of the Collection is, that the products will remind people of Tavastia in their homes for years to come. Most importantly, Tavastia club survived the pandemic and is soon ready to let fans back in!

Please tell us how disruption in your market inspired the work

Due to covid-19 Tavastia club was unable to profit from ticket sales so they had to come up with other ideas on how to survive during the pandemic. Tavastia also wanted to give all the rock and roll fans something as the joy of attending a live show was taken away from them. Tavastia gave fans it's backstage as a when live shows were not an option. The backstage collection was a unique way to celebrate while celebrating live wasn't an option.