With no idea where to start, I decided to grab a book. A quick look at the history events concluded the twentieth century as a turbulent journey for Finland. Being province of Russian Empire, industrializing process, two major wars, war-indemnity obligations and days of pipeline industry seem to be somewhere far behind. Still, all these episodes have taken Finland towards the IT-driven information society and PR processes of today.
Finnish PR campaigning can be seen started by “Finlandia”, the first propaganda film on Finland made in 1922. It was shown all over the world. According to researcher Jari Sedergren’s blog the estimated number of viewers is 6 million, which would make the film the most watched Finnish film over the times!
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| One of the exotic views in the film "Finlandia". |
But what is the situation with Finnish PR nowadays? How did it develop to the forms of today? In this blog I try to find answers to these questions. So, here starts my turbulent journey.
Sources:
Lehtonen, J. (2004). “Finland.” In B. Van Ruler & D. Verčič, Public relations and communication management in Europe; a nation-by-nation introduction to public relations theory and practice (p.107-119). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter.
http://sedis.blogspot.com/2008/03/finlandia-ulkoasiainministerin.html
wow, very interesting sub topic and so positive and joyful layout. I think your blog topic will be extremely cool also for next generations! excellently done. continue same way! also text balanced with photo is very good solution. Only little critics about your blog name - it is very complicated - hard to remember :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! I changed the name to be a bit shorter. Like you said, this blogging will be a developing process. I bet there will be many changes coming on :)
ReplyDeleteYou found an interesting link, I had never heard about the film. I wonder if the contents is different of today - I heard somewhere that the new PR campaign also accentuates forests etc. We do have other things as well, don't we?
ReplyDeleteyour second post already caught me to comment and share thoughts, but I just have to write here, that for me, as a foreigner this is also really informative topic! I know, or rather assume, that every country is also dealing with imagobuilding and with introducing the country. Also in estonia there was a huge campaign, which was widely discussed in media, was widely discussed in social groups and which developed into most weird areas. Estonian brand-orientated-action was "Welcome to Estonia" (http://www.welcometoestonia.ee/), which was taken into heavy use. For example one guy built a toilet shaped of this logo (http://www.einst.ee/Ea/screw/images/2_02/wc.jpg) ; people have photoshopped that logo and they have written different messages into it and writing message "welcome to estonia" differently (http://images.uncyc.org/commons/thumb/7/7f/Welcome_to_estonia.jpg/100px-Welcome_to_estonia.jpg)
ReplyDeletebut then it suddenly ended. It created feedback and reactions, it was taken into use (humour) and it was both critisized and loved. But did it achieve its goal, where did it end up? and even more - has it made estonia more known? Quick "google" found me some opinions and articles stating, that many foreigners know that logo and that mark. But still, somehow it feels, that those kind of country introductions and projects end in the middle and one can not be sure about is it really working? is it effective for what it is meant for?
Even more, I will ask, that was this campaign really one whole? imagobuilding and marketing is a process and besides making some good add, good logo, good idea, good approach this also has to be published the right way. Maybe my thought is a little difficult to follow, but let me then ask differently: f.e this ape-show - was it shown only in expo and is this where it ends? or is it a part of a continious PR process which develops further and further. This question is inspired by "welcometoestonia" example. Every estonian knows, that huge amount of money was spent on this project, it was laughed at etc. But today i came to that webpage of this project for the first time. After all that media fuss around it calmed down, it has continued living underground - not noticeably. And since it has been un-noticeable for me, I am just asking, that is it un-noticeable also for its target groups.
So, I think my thoughts about such ads can be concluded to the question, that "is it only 15 minutes of fame (meaning one time project), or is it really a continous process of imagebuilding; and what happens, if the first excitement ends.
huh.