Finland’s Masterclass of Happiness
By Visit Finland
Tourism is a crucial industry in Finland, contributing significantly to its economy. Visit Finland continually strives to enhance travel to Finland and establish it as a sustainable and desirable destination on the global stage.
In 2022, Visit Finland encountered a historic challenge when travel routes from Asia closed due to the shutdown of Russian airspace, halting travel from Russia as well. This led to a drastic decline in travel from key Eastern markets by over 83%, significantly impacting the country's economy, with an estimated loss of 1.2 billion euros in foreign tourism compared to previous years.
To turn the business around, Visit Finland needed to find a new campaign strategy. With the East shut down, they expanded their focus even more globally than before – particularly towards the West – and identified the potential of the US market.
The Strategy
Despite Finland's consistent ranking as the world's happiest country, many are unaware of this fact. However, when global turmoil halted travel in 2022, Visit Finland faced the challenge of leveraging this national happiness for new audiences seeking off-grid vacations. The key message focused on sharing Finnish happiness worldwide.
The goal was to create value for the global audience of "Modern Humanist" by crafting a meaningful brand experience. This group of discerning travellers prefers local experiences, prioritising sustainability and cultural immersion.
With a budget significantly smaller than their competitors, the team aimed to maximise impact through a strategic approach, drawing attention to Finland, initiating a PR phenomenon, engaging audiences, generating digital demand, and directing traffic to their channels.
The creative idea was designed to earn attention, be distinctive, globally impactful, and inspiring. As a challenger brand the goals were to increase awareness of Finland as a travel destination, gain as much visibility as possible in earned media globally, reach new generations, and engage people in conversation.
Finland has topped the UN Happiness Report for six years. This emphasis on national happiness has also been at the core of the Visit Finland brand.
People in today's world have grown distant from true happiness, 45% have forgotten what happiness feels like, and every fourth person no longer remembers its sensation. The demand is higher than ever. Finnish state-of-mind is not a secret or mystical ability. Finns are born with, but it is a skill that can be taught.
Introducing the Masterclass of Happiness – a crash course sharing the lifestyle of the world's happiest nation with people globally.
The Implementation
The team launched the Masterclass of Happiness with a press release and social media challenge. The majority of the campaign communication was conducted through PR rather than traditional paid media channels. As a result, the measurable impact of the PR efforts on objectives and brand engagement serves as the primary indicator of the campaign's success.
Additionally, despite active communication in only nine markets, the campaign spread to 190 countries with the power of PR.
The response was outstanding, with numerous media interviews and queries. The team invited journalists and influencers to a tailored Masterclass, enabling them to experience it first-hand. The campaign heavily relied on social media channels and PR, effectively amplifying the attention generated in the US to a global scale.
After a careful selection process, the team chose fourteen participants to attend the in-person Masterclass in Finland, which received over 150,000 applications through a social media campaign.
The Masterclass content was meticulously curated, starting with in-depth research to identify the right coaches and collaboratively creating lesson content with them to provide value to all participants. The team carefully selected coaches who understood the philosophy of Finnish happiness. Chosen not just for their ability to convey personal experiences, but also to bridge ancient wisdom with modern life. Together, they explored the core elements of Finnish happiness – from the functionality of design to the simplicity of culinary traditions. Each lesson aimed to revive fundamental skills and foster a deeper appreciation for life's basics.
The Masterclass of Happiness was built around four themes: Nature & Lifestyle, Health & Balance, Design & Everyday, and Food & Wellbeing. While attracting travellers, the goal was to create a genuine, meaningful tool for anyone to embrace the Finnish happy lifestyle. Live experience was subsequently transformed into online content, making it available as a learning tool for everyone.
The Results
The campaign delivered c.2,500 media hits related to the Masterclass and Finnish happiness, across 190 countries, reaching an audience potential of 11.1billion.
Earned media value worth 165 M€ was delivered, and the concept was shared by Kourtney Kardashian, reaching 224 million followers.
The Masterclass experience was documented in a 2-episode ABC series, for free.
The campaign delivered 9.6 million hashtag views on TikTok and a 22% increase in social media channel followers. There was a 350% rise in traffic on visitfinland.com and 150,000 applications for the live Masterclass.
Travel from the US increased by 35%, contributing to an 8% overall increase in overnight stays compared to the previous year. This equals to 2,900 full airplanes.
98% of people who have done the Masterclass feel they've learned things to improve their quality of life, with 97% planning to apply these lessons.
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