City of Vantaa -
Vantaa is the World campaign
Putting a city on the global map with a playful campaign.
The need
Vantaa, the fourth largest city in Finland, had an awareness problem. In a 2020 survey only 5% of the participants owned up to visiting Vantaa in the last year. A whopping 88% claimed never to have set foot in the city.
Visit Vantaa and Valve took it upon them to refresh the outdated image of a rather anonymous burg produced by Finland's internal migration. The main goal of our campaign was to communicate the idea of Vantaa as an attractive local travel destination. We also wanted to brighten up Vantaa's overall brand and deepen the identity of the residents. While our target group entailed all 18–65-year-old Finns, we paid special attention to families with children in Southern Finland.
The solution
Creative concept: Vantaa is the World
We created a concept of Vantaa as a world-class travel destination with a surprising amount to do and see. This is how we started defeating the stereotypical notions about the city:
Association: equating Vantaa's sights in a surprising way with those of the world's metropolises
Humour: painting a picture of a bold but easygoing city that can view itself with warm self-irony
Phenomenising: gaining earned media by encouraging people to share their own stories
We assembled pairs of photos where Vantaa's destinations were twinned with world-famous landmarks – the limestone cliffs of Kalkkikallio with Mount Rushmore and the City Museum with the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech, for example.
The solution
Whether you desired rest, recreation, beauty or culture – why go elsewhere when you can come to Vantaa! During the COVID-19 crisis people were inspired by a message that you can see your own surroundings with new eyes.
The results
Optimised and interactive digital ads that made people react
We used Facebook and Instagram as the digital advertising channels, producing carousel ads with the photo pairs as well as videos. Creating three ad groups for different target groups allowed us to optimise the ad groups or ads as needed by revising or changing target groups and ad texts. We sought engagement and interactivity with the ads by, for example, using questions. The traffic from the ads was directed to the campaign site we created at visitvantaa.fi.
The short but effective social media ad campaign in February 2021 exceeded expectations. We got 90 456 impressions and reached 37 280 people, 4 258 of whom engaged with the ads.
- 4,71 %Of those who saw the ad reacted to it in some way. (According to studies, anything above 1% is considered a good result.)
The premise inspired media and residents
Our plan to gain earned media succeeded. The playful campaign idea grabbed the attention of several media outlets. Many of the local businesses started to use the hashtag #vantaaistheworld.
The campaign also inspired Vantaa residents to come up with new world-class comparisons: the Aviapolis sign, for example, was likened to the iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.
