Forest Finland: Hidden in plain sight

OBJECTIVE

Forest Finland, the joint communication project of the Finnish forest sector, wanted to update the view of all the Finnish people on how the forests in Finland are utilised. The reason being that in the course of time we’ve learned to avail our forests of so much more than just good old pulp and two-by-fours.

To make this happen we needed to have every Finnish person recognise how they feel about our forests. We needed to dig up the subconscious thoughts and fortify the ones they were already aware of.

CHALLENGE

The Finnish people don’t actively think about all of the things and wellbeing brought to us by our forests. We’re on the verge of forgetting what they mean to us today and how important they are to our future.

INSIGHT

Our nation’s success stories – or rather instructive failures, more often than not – tend to form around people. And one could argue, that it is only natural the main protagonist is a human being. But with every great person, there’s always someone or something that support them, help them on the way. Even if it’s only in the background. Or The Background.

CREATIVE APPROACH

The main creative idea was to show people in everyday situations and include a Finnish forest in the picture, one way or another.

The situation could be anything, a wedding or a funeral, ski-jumping or swimming in an ice hole –anything really as long as there was an element or two of Finnish forest in the background. All this in a gentle and kind tone with a hint of romanticism.

Some of the campaign films were made to look like another type of commercial at first and then switched to reveal that most of the props used in the spot were actually made of wood-based materials. Again, hidden in the background, but still playing a major role.

In addition to the films the campaign involved a comprehensive set of outdoor and social media ads and radio spots.

RESULTS

The campaign was launched in May 2020 on TV, social media, OOH and radio, and was chosen as the campaign of the month just weeks after its release in May 2020.