We aimed at creating the biggest phenomenon for the centenary celebrations in Finland. The objective was to attract 700 000 spectators for the movie in a country of just 5,4 million people. The Unknown Soldier movie broke all box office records. In a country of 5,4 million people it sold over a million tickets and became the most watched Finnish film in over 50 years and the most watched film in the country for 20 years, beating Star Wars’ and Bond movies.
In order to stay within its production budget and to generate more visibility for the movie, the new Unknown Soldier launched an exceptional branded content platform for brands in Finland. First, we targeted major Finnish brands and companies and presented the idea of platform to them. We specifically targeted companies that have a very broad reach, in order to help make the Unknown Soldier movie a point of national pride for the entire country. We turned the world upside down. Normally brands use movies to help market their products. We made brands market the movie, turning it into a phenomenon and then creating a bigger impact for their involvement.
During the production of the movie, we wrote scripts for brands that were shot as behind-the-scenes stories for brands to use in national TV campaigns as well as social media content. All these short films were directed by Aku Louhimies, the director of the actual movie. We also shot still images of the partners’ products used during the making of the movie for content in social and print.
Nearly two years before the premiere of the movie, these campaigns started to run on national TV and appear online, escalating towards the premiere date. In this way the movie received more pre-launch promotion than any other Finnish movie before it. When the partners (brands) received their content (films for TV and social, still images for online and print), they formulated a variety of national campaigns with specific media plans. Also, many FMGC partners launched Unknown products and campaigns to support these.
The Unknown platform integrated all these activities to bring strong visibility support for the movie, while at the same time the content boosted the sales or messaging of individual brands.