Process and insight
We knew that this would be a complex and large-scale project that could not be approached through traditional content production or growth marketing processes. We therefore created a special Significance Distillery workshop series for the project, which combined creative design, brand building and content strategy workflows into a new kind of package.
Before starting the workshops, we extensively researched Alko’s background materials, research materials, strategy documents and social sources. We also had long discussions with members of Alko’s communication team.
In the first meeting, we focused on facilitated discussions to define the problem and the requirements for a solution from the perspectives of Genero’s experts and Alko’s professionals.
After the first workshop, we found that at the heart of the problem was Alko’s dual role as a developer of drinking culture and a provider of experiences and world-class service on the one hand, and its social role in promoting health and well-being and the constraints of legislation on the other. The demand curve was also increased by the fact that dozens of different communication needs and touch points were identified.
We realized that there was no way we could cover them all in one output. Fortunately, there were literally hundreds of benefits and advantages for Alko.
This abundance was a message in itself – and we decided to take it to the heart of our design.
Based on this insight, we created a new Alko Tänään (Alko Today) concept, which would over time consist of potentially hundreds of micro-concepts, built first as online content, but easily replicable across all identified brand touchpoints. We could therefore use this concept to communicate at three different levels:
A general view, which tells you that there are literally dozens, or hundreds, of facts and viewpoints about the Alko brand.
These can also be divided into categories, which could be broken down and targeted into broad themes and targeted at different audiences and different purposes
The individual fact level, which, in addition to micro-content, would also serve as a campaign in its own right on a single issue or Alko’s way of doing things, where appropriate.
In the following workshops, we refined and filed these ideas into a coherent whole.
Production and online service
For the first phase, we created a new alkotanaan.fi platform, which we implemented using Contentful and React-front to resemble a lightly browsable app like Tinder or AirBnB, in order to engage visitors with the content as much as possible.
The three-tiered concept was considered in the first phase for the general view and the individual articles. Later in the development process, also as meaning categories that could be communicated as concepts in their own right.
We produced 20 micro-articles for the service and for all of them moving visual concepts by interviewing Alko experts. The design of these contents took into account that the idea would work in both video and still formats. In this way, we ensured that the selected concepts could be used in the future not only on the website, but also directly on all Alko’s social media channels, and by refining them in practice on any touch interface; from the bottom of Aiko’s shopping cart to card decks, from digital screens to powerpoint slides.
We used Alko’s own ready-made materials, image bank materials and new visual materials shot for the concept.
Launch
The Alkotanaan.fi website was launched in spring 2023, initially with a comprehensive social media presence, and the site will continue to evolve.
It is a very broad and multifunctional entity in terms of content, quite unique in Finland’s marketing history. The structure might function as a new blueprint for building marketing, meaning and brand communication that lives beyond campaigns as a growing and living platform and advertising concept.