Long-term sponsorship campaign bears fruit

Rahalaitos embraces programme phenomena insightfully.

For a long time, Rahalaitos has used very tactical and result-driven marketing.

“TV has been our main media since the beginning because of its accessibility and effectivity. It has helped us grow our recognition and positively affected our business growth,” says Jaakko Sipola, the CEO of Rahalaitos.

“Our way of marketing is the constant coverage strategy. We started pondering how to have long-term effects on certain audiences in a cost-efficient and new manner.”

Rahalaitos decided to test how sponsorship campaigning could support tactical marketing.

“Even though sponsorship campaigning is not a tactical marketing tool per se, but rather a way of brand building, we wanted to bring a more tactical view to it. We tried it out and had good results.”

For Rahalaitos, the basis of choosing programmes is accessibility and positive programme context. The chosen programme phenomena have been, for instance, Vain Elämää, Selviytyjät Suomi (Survivor), James Bond movies, The Voice of Finland and Big Brother Suomi.

“We want to connect our brand with the programme and we find it to be most natural with big entertainment and reality programmes.”

Choices are also based on the length of the show run and internet coverage, which can direct visitors to Rahalaitos’ website.

In Big Brother 2019, Rahalaitos brought in its own currency "rahna". Big Brother housemates gained rahna from viewer votes, by taking part in Daily Tasks or by selling goods to other housemates. This attached the brand to the programme content in a fun and memorable manner.

“This small element created a positive connection between us and Big Brother. At the time, we had a good growth phase, which was steadily strengthened by cooperation.”

This year, Rahalaitos works with Arman Pohjantähden alla and Farmi. There are also new cooperation plans for the autumn.

“These programmes fit well with our thoughts on suitable context and style.”

Rahalaitos plans the marketing and makes the related media decisions itself.

“As we have no third-party help with planning, a direct connection with media is especially important to us. It is very important that the contact person at Sanoma understands our business and our way of marketing. Sanoma’s offers to us are thought out and customized for us, which makes the decision making easier. Moreover, programme sponsorship solutions are packaged to include everything. Sanoma’s help with planning and executing a creative solution has made things easy for us.”

The profiles and coverage of Sanoma's TV programmes fit the needs of Rahalaitos.

“Our aims are a large target group and sufficient coverage. We have felt that we get them through Sanoma.”

Rahalaitos has taken a creative and insightful control of the content of programme phenomena in its own sponsorship bumpers. This creates a strong memory and attaches the brand to the programmes’ themes and values.

Examples of Rahalaitos’ programme sponsorship bumpers

Selviytyjät Suomi (Survivor)