Title	CITY SKIS – THE WORLD'S FIRST URBAN SKI SHARE
Brand	THE CITY OF LAHTI
Product/Service	EUROPEAN GREEN CAPITAL 2021
Category	B05. Use of Ambient Media: Large Scale
Entrant	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Idea Creation	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Media Placement	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Media Placement 2	CITY OF LAHTI Lahti, FINLAND
PR	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Production	TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
Production 2	CITY OF LAHTI Lahti, FINLAND

Name	Company	Position
Jyrki Poutanen	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative Direction
Mikko Pietilä	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative Direction
Markus Nieminen	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative Direction
Maria Kuorikoski	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative, copywriter
Tuomas Karvonen	TBWA\Helsinki	Creative, content strategy
Teemu Lappalainen	TBWA\Helsinki	Art Direction
Jenni Mällinen	TBWA\Helsinki	Art Direction
Tommi Selander	TBWA\Helsinki	Graphic Designer
Ella Komulainen	TBWA\Helsinki	Account Director
Maija Naumanen	TBWA\Helsinki	Project management
Paula Sonne	TBWA\Helsinki	PR
Sara Pitzén	TBWA\Helsinki	PR
Saana Simander	TBWA\Helsinki	PR
Ville Hackzell	TBWA\Helsinki	Video editor
Aku Koskinen	TBWA\Helsinki	DoP
Johanna Tarvainen	TBWA\Helsinki	Video production

Why is this work relevant for Media?

Becoming the European Green Capital during the pandemic, Lahti was faced with a two-fold problem. It had to engage its local audience and launch the year on a global stage, without organising events or media visits that normally would be go-to choice. Rather than tell our message, we built it into a real public transport service for the locals. By leveraging the city's heritage and using its snowy streets as media space, we created a sustainable mobility innovation that became an experiental outdoor activation for the locals and a globally recognised innovation that grasped the audience's attention.

Background

European Green Capital is an annual title given out by the European Commission to promote environmentally friendly urban living. It’s awarded to cities with an impressive record in sustainability and can act as an inspiring role model and promote best practices to all other European cities. Our brief was to help Lahti achieve these goals despite a ban on public events and international visitors. We needed to create a new idea for an approach that would get the attention of global news media, promote Lahti’s innovative approach towards urban sustainability and generate interest towards a small, unknown city that followed the likes of Oslo, Copenhagen, Lisbon and Stockholm as European Green Capital. The main objectives were to secure international media coverage for Lahti as the new Green Capital, positive sentiment with local audiences and spread awareness for Lahti’s green initiatives to inspire other cities.

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

We decided to promote Lahti’s green innovations by creating a new one that would catch the world's interest: the world’s first urban ski sharing program, using the city itself as media space to reach a global audience. In Finland, Lahti is well known for cross-country skiing and its climate action, so a celebration of snow and winter sports was a fitting way to promote their work for saving Nordic winters. Winters in the Lahti region have already lost a month of snow cover to climate change. To create the service, we set up ski sharing points made out of sustainable local wood and stocked with recycled second hand skis in central locations across the city. New ski trails were laid on sidewalks and the market square in the city’s center. The system was free to use and based on trust that the users would return the equipment after use.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Locally, we wanted to generate pride over Lahti’s sustainability and communicate that the Green Capital year was something for the locals to enjoy, despite nearly all planned events being cancelled. Here, in addition to local residents, our target audience consisted of other cities and national decision makers, so reaching them though Finnish news media was crucial. By creating a service that spread itself into the whole city, we were able to engage locals without events or bought media, and in a covid safe way. In a survey, 51% of locals said that earned media was the preferred and most important channel for following the Green Capital year. Our efforts focused on creating an outdoor activation that combined an experiential local element with national and international PR potential to reach the Green Capital's global stakeholders: other EU cities and governments, environmentally minded consumers and decision makers.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The City Skis were in place during the peak snowy season of January and February. The first PR push was made to Finnish media on 20 January, timed to coincide with the Lahti Ski Games, followed by a global press release on 26 January. Three ski sharing points with skis and ski poles in different sizes were set up in the city centre. New trails were made onto the sidewalks and connected to the city's expansive ski trail network of over 300 kilometres. Locally, consumers were activated through Lahti's social media channels and 12 local microinfluencers. The ski trails and sharing points quickly became a social media hit around the city. Outside Lahti, the idea was introduced through short social media films in both Finnish and English and PR work.

List the results (30% of vote)

Locally, the response was very positive, with residents eagerly testing out the skis and sharing their excitement on social media. The overall sentiment towards the Green Capital year was measured before and after the activities and post-campaign results showed a 15% increase in local resident’s positive attitude, with the number of those viewing the initiative favourably rising from 66% to 76% in Q1. City Skis gained 859 earned mentions and a potential reach of 1.9 billion and an earned media value of 17.5 million euros (Meltwater). It attracted the attention of international media, making Lahti famous and giving them the opportunity to share their message with the world.