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Salla, a small Finnish city (pop. 3,407 people) declared in January 2021 that it was going head-to-head against cities like Madrid Jakarta Istanbul Doha and Jakarta to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games. Salla is quite different from other cities, with an average temperature of 31.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Historically, being located above the Arctic Circle would be considered a competitive disadvantage to host the Summer Games, but if climate change continues apace, Finland’s coldest town up in the country’s Lapland region believes it would be ready.
A campaign by São Paulo-based ad agency Africa and Lapland’s marketing arm, The House of Lapland, “Salla 2032” mobilized the entire city, with content like a hilariously straight-faced bid video that starred Salla citizens stumping for summer, and a jaunt from the mascot and the mayor to the IOC’s Swiss headquarters to deliver the official bid. It’s the winner of the advertising category of Fast Company’s 2022 World Changing Ideas Awards.
The novelty of an Arctic town bidding for the Summer Games got attention, especially with support from Greta Thunberg’s advocacy organization Fridays For Future. The campaign strategically used that attention to raise awareness about climate change and spur action. It was timed right when the world was watching the Tokyo Summer Games. It’s a fun way to get a deadly serious point across, and illustrate the very real consequences of not acting quickly enough on climate change.
“We are concerned about climate change, and as we live here in the Arctic circle, we are experiencing it before many others,” says Salla’s mayor, Erkki Parkkinen. “We don’t want to be the best place to host Summer Games in 2032 because that would mean that temperatures would have not stopped rising. Summer Games’ values are to unify people and nations. We need this same spirit to stop climate change.”
Nicholas Bergantin, Africa creative Director, said that the key to a campaign and content that resonated was getting locals to believe in the idea. “They all believed and acted like they would host the Summer Olympic Games,” says Bergantin. “They believed in doing something important. There were no actors. Only Salla people were able to sell a crazy idea but with a serious message. Without the community support, the campaign would never be successful as it was.”
Brisbane, Australia won the 2032 Olympics. But with no media budget the Salla campaign generated more than 7 Billion media impressions and $157 M in earned media. All this to remind us that climate emergency is not a game.
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