It’s hard to believe that we are already in the middle of the summer and the first six months of this year has passed. The spring of 2019 has been unique for PING Helsinki in many ways. Growth and new opportunities have appeared in many different occasions and we have been fortunate enough to execute wonderful projects. We want to thank our awesome clients and our team of professional Influencer Matchmakers!
It has been our pleasure to be able to create a complete influencer strategy for several companies and brands. In the strategies influencer cooperation is placed right in the middle of marketing communication. From this point we start planning with the client how we reach the goals of the business together as well as possible.
The influencer strategy and mapping is always done by a Matchmaker who is familiar with the target group. Our Matchmakers are also influencers themselves. This way we make sure that the point of view of an influencer is present from the very first moments of the planning. During the spring we have made strategies and influencer mappings for companies such as Meira, Kulta Katriina, Reima, SOS Lapsikylä, Creditea, Allas Sea Pool and Kuusamon Juusto.
Of course our goal is to continue the well-started cooperation with long-term influencer relations management. During this PING Helsinki will work as the eyes and ears of our client within the field of influencer marketing. Our matchmakers will take care of the agreed actions and their measurements. They will also be proactive in following the discussions and reporting the up-and-coming trends to the client.
During the spring we have been able to execute numerous fascinating projects and develop our clients’ long-term influencer relations. In all of our projects we work with both independent influencers and influencer agencies to create the optimal mix.
January marked the start of a unique influencer collaboration. Finnish influencer Joonas Pesonen (@pesojoonas) moved to Clarion Hotels Finland to live there for a whole year. The aim of this unique #YearInClarion -cooperation is both to create interesting content and to bring new suggestions on how to develop the hotel’s operations on a daily basis – and, naturally, to offer media interesting points of view on life in a hotel.
Another long-term collaboration about to begin is #VaihtovuosiSodankylässä (#ExchanceYearInSodankylä) by family YouTube channel Äidin puheenvuoro. During this YouTuber Inari Fernández and her family will move to Lappland for a year! PING Helsinki has helped to create concept and find partners for the campaign, which starts at the beginning of August.
In the future we wish to offer client companies our professional input in creating long-term partnerships. We also help influencers who want to create new ways of working with companies and want to have additional resources in commercializing their idea.
Of course we have had many other influencer collaboration projects during the spring with e.g. Nokia Tyres, SOL beer, Finnish company ‘Oppi ja Ilo’ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s ‘Ekopaasto’ (ecological passover). A Swedish company Personal Planner is entering the Finnish market and working together with micro-influencers. In measuring the cooperation as well as in creating the influencer mappings we use Social Influencers tool by Meltwater. It has become crucial for our clients, too, as it provides an easy way to follow the results of influencer actions, especially on Instagram.
During last winter we executed together with Veikkaus an influencer campaign that was built around their ‘Mahdollisuuksia’ (Possibilities) podcast. It proved to be a success. Flexible cooperation between the client, Basso radio channel and Dagmar brought outstanding results. We were able to reach tens of thousands of listeners and won awards from numerous marketing galas to the ensemble. Lesson learned was that the right timing of the influencer contents played a crucial role when we want to reach completely new audiences.
Podcasts are getting more and more listeners. We are especially proud of the recently launched ‘Kahvihetkiä Vallilan Paahtimolla’ (Coffee moments in the roasting factory of Vallila) by Finnish coffee brand Kulta Katriina. The host of the podcast is Mikko Toiviainen (@Kalenterikarju) and each episode features a different influencer as a guest.
We are also getting started again with our service design projects. Recently we have concepted our influencer centered service design together with our partner Embassy of Design. We will gladly tell more about how we can gain 200 new ideas from the right target groups in just two hours.
During the spring we have not only organized our own PING Studios, but also threw launch parties, PR events, celebrations and seminars for our clients. During the summer we are preparing a huge unity around our partnership with Canon in Tubecon.
We love encounters and believe that in a successful event the participant always gets more than he expected. We aim to provide our guests experiences, learning, networking and inspiration. The concept of PING Festival is alive and kicking – we are only waiting for the right partners for the execution.
During this spring we have produced events for e.g. Clarion Hotels, Reima, Teos publishing, Folkhälsan, Filmkopagniet and Mediapooli.
Different trainings of influencer marketing are organized in almost weekly basis. In our trainings we use the data and points of view from the research on influencer marketing, which we executed already for the third time this spring. It is inspirational to share knowledge and your own know-how. In addition to tailor-made trainings we have also organized our own PING Academy series during the spring. In PING Academy we are cooperating strongly together with Bonfire Agency, which is specialized in B2B influencer marketing.
Our long-term work on developing the field has been noted and at the beginning of the year we were invited to represent Finnish social media influencers in the Content group of National Emergency Supply Agency. Working together with the group, Mediapooli, is really meaningful for us and who knows, it might take us to international field, too. We believe in sharing knowledge on how social media influencers can use their power and responsibility to prevent disinformation from spreading.
Also our ethic code has gotten updated examples now that Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority has finally published their guidelines on how to mark commercial collaborations. The situation is not yet as clear as could be and there is inequality between different channels, but at least the field now has one common instruction on which the work and decisions can be based on. At the end of June over 100 influencers gathered together to discuss on marking and hear about the latest decisions of The Council of Ethics in Advertising in our Influencers evening.
In the middle of June we spent our Matchmaker Day together with our nine Matchmakers, who work as independent entrepreneurs. We enjoyed a sunny summer day and brainstormed upcoming actions. It felt great given the fact that one year ago I started building a new way of doing business practically alone. During the autumn we are planning on growing the Core team with at least one Matchmaker. We are also hiring a new intern focusing on marketing and event production. Our goal is also to hire an influencer marketing strategist to develop client base and sales.
During the spring 2019 PING Matchmakers have been the following independent entrepreneurs: Kathrin Deter, Inari Fernández, Maria Kangaskortet, Emmi Nuorgam, Veera Papinoja, Varpu Pöyry, Tiia Rantanen ja Laura Satamo. I have had Elina Mikkonen working with me in the core team of PING Helsinki. Our home base is located in the urban hub for creative work, Sofia Future Farm – welcome to work with us!
– Inna-Pirjetta
info@pinghelsinki.fi
+358 40 414 7076
Come to PING Gallery: Sofiankatu 8, Helsinki
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