The quirkiest country on Instagram.
CASE: thisisFINLAND
One of my favorite collaborations
Putting thisisFINLAND on the map
CASE
Roles | strategy, copywriting, design, social media management, analytics
The Foreign Ministry of Finland and its country brand unit wanted to turn Instagram into one of its primary platforms for promoting Finnish culture and politics and the opportunities for living, working, traveling, and education the country has to offer.
I was the strategic and creative lead for putting thisisfinlandofficial on the map. The goal was to grow their audience on Instagram and maintain a positive level of engagement while relying on purely organic distribution.
Having a zero media budget meant each post had to be carefully optimized and that we should emphasize the quirky tone of voice to make thisisFINLAND stand out from publishers that focused on tourism. Staying active was another key tactic: we published 5–6 posts/week to really play into the algorithm.
THE RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
We grew from 4000 to 21 000 followers, while still maintaining an extremely high engagement rate (15% on average).
Humblebrag: we were also nominated for Best Social Media Presence at Grand One.
What made the collaboration so special
Representing Finland was truly an honor. I especially enjoyed working with thisisFINLAND because of the creative freedom. We could choose topics and test content ideas freely, which helped to establish a unique persona, make publishing dynamic and see what really works – a lot of times, individual posts would turn into recurring concepts.
The quirky tone of voice lent itself to wordplay and other kinds of eccentric humor that’s right up my alley. We also didn’t want to be too polished and official, meaning the Finnish country brand could look and sound like a private user – years before it became the norm on platforms like TikTok.
