OULUS­PO­RA

Oulu is a grow­ing and dynam­ic city. It’s a home to 200,000 peo­ple and also the fifth largest city in Fin­land. Still, only a few peo­ple know these facts. Dur­ing the Oulus­po­ra cam­paign, Oulu donat­ed a tram full of Oulu-relat­ed cul­tur­al expe­ri­ences to Helsin­ki for six months.

A Tram Filled With Oulu Cul­ture

Oulus­po­ra – which is Oulu tram in Eng­lish –  was a very vis­i­ble tram on the streets of Helsin­ki due to the colour­ful and beau­ti­ful Oulu illus­tra­tions on its sides. It was also a venue for events that intro­duced Oulu and its cul­ture to the peo­ple of Helsin­ki.

The cam­paign start­ed in Decem­ber 2017 with a great per­for­mance of Tier­napo­jat (star singers) and it end­ed in June 2018. The punch­line of the cam­paign was on the first day of June when there was a spe­cial per­for­mance in the tram – a Finnish Oulu-based singer Elli­noo­ra. Dur­ing the cam­paign there was a lot­tery on the cam­paign web­site and social media where peo­ple could win tick­ets to this pri­vate gig.

Dur­ing the spring many pri­vate and pub­lic pop-up events were held in the tram. They were all some­how Oulu-relat­ed. Also, in social media there was a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Finnish vlog­ger Sita Salmi­nen, who has stud­ied at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. 

Icon­ic Oulu Illus­tra­tions

The tram itself was a very clever and effec­tive mar­ket­ing tool.

The city of cycling, Tier­napo­jat, the Air Gui­tar World Cham­pi­onships, the Polar Bear Pitch­ing event, Kär­pät the ice-hock­ey team and bar­beque sausage – these are all things Oulu is known for. These themes were fresh­ly and inno­v­a­tive­ly added to the illus­tra­tion. The visu­al guid­ance of the City of Oulu was reflect­ed in the colours and the over­all cam­paign image.

Satu Sinikumpu from Työ­maa cre­at­ed the illus­tra­tion.

Strong on Social Media

The main source of infor­ma­tion was the web­site helsinki.oulu.com. On the sides of the tram, there was a text that guid­ed peo­ple to the site. On social media, peo­ple were guid­ed to use the hash­tag #oulus­po­ra.

On the cam­paign site we com­mu­ni­cat­ed briefly, yet engag­ing­ly, about the pos­si­bil­i­ties the City of Oulu has to offer. These pos­si­bil­i­ties include, for exam­ple, pos­si­bil­i­ty to study, work and ven­ture in Oulu, and enjoy its rich cul­ture.