The city of Mikkeli wowed with an impressive campaign - travel intentions increased by a whopping 485%
The City of Mikkeli, Mikkeli Development Company Miksei, and the Centre of War and Peace Muisti jointly produced a multi-channel campaign with Sanoma as part of the Headquarters – Mikkeli Tourism Development Project. The group project focuses on developing new and sustainable tourism business based on Mikkeli’s history and cultural heritage.
The Headquarters City of Mikkeli -campaign included influencer collaboration with Jone Nikula, native articles, videos, social media, digital advertising and radio spots.
The videos were published not only alongside native articles on HS.fi but also on the project’s and partners’ websites and social media channels, including Facebook and Instagram.
Video advertising was used to drive traffic to the native articles. According to the impact study, the native articles alone significantly increased travel intentions to Mikkeli—by as much as 485%. The Headquarters City of Mikkeli -campaign successfully achieved its goal of strengthening Mikkeli’s positive image nationwide in a versatile way.
The campaign was truly heard and seen in many ways. The Headquarters City theme hit the right moment,’ says Tarja Pönniö-Kanerva, Project Manager of the Headquarters Project.
The campaign strengthened the brand in a versitile way
The Content Director and Historian of the War and Peace Centre Muisti Pia Puntanen together with Marketing Planner Salla Hyvönen from the City of Mikkeli, considered the campaign a bold move that reinforced the brand in multiple ways."
"The results show that people are interested in stories and places. The local history and culture are strong profiling factors," Puntanen states.
"The campaign generated significant visibility in social media," says Hyvönen.
According to her, the campaign's videos, which the city shared on its own social media channels, worked particularly well. The campaign increased the city's followers on Instagram and Facebook.
Posts on Jone Nikula’s social media channels, which were part of the campaign, reached a total of 46 031 views and accumulated 63 844 impressions.
Hyvönen continues that the new approach to city marketing attracted positive attention.
"It wasn’t the traditional city marketing people are used to seeing."
"The campaign highlighted Mikkeli's willingness to boldly experiment with different approaches, which aligned perfectly with the city's 'bold surprise' brand."
The effects are seen in the longer term
Pönniö-Kanerva, Puntanen, and Hyvönen say that the campaign successfully highlighted not only the city’s history but also its potential of housing and tourism opportunities.
The campaign's impact was reflected in the number of visitors during the summer to the Astuvansalmi Visitor Centre's Astuva and Muisti and The Headquarters Museum.
The people of Mikkeli believe that the true effects of multi-channel city marketing will become evident especially over the long term.
With this campaign, we stayed in people’s minds and memories. It might be that next summer they’ll come to Mikkeli for a trip. And then, five years from now, they’ll decide to move here.
In Mikkeli, it is well understood that measuring resident acquisition as a direct result of a campaign is challenging. Migration is influenced by many factors, such as job opportunities and family circumstances.
“However, I believe that as a result of the multi-channel campaign carried out with Sanoma, Mikkeli will be remembered as an attractive place to live and will also appeal to potential returnees,” says Pönniö-Kanerva.
The campaign in numbers
85 000 readers
Three native articles attracted a total of 99 000 page views and more than 85 000 readers, which was almost 200% above average.
86 000 video views
The videos were viewed 86 000 times in total. More than 80% of readers of the articles started watching the videos and stayed with them for an average of almost 2 minutes.
Travel intention + 485 %
According to the survey, travel intentions to Mikkeli increased by 485% among readers of the native article.
Positive image + 75 %
According to a survey, as many as 75% of readers of native articles felt that advertising had a positive impact on their image.
Campaign materials
Social media videos
(in Finnish only)
Examples of radio spots
(in Finnish only)
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