Visit Finland – your journey to calm and happiness
The new cadence of travel is more deliberate, introspective, and soulful. Empowered by over 5 million people living in the happiest country in the world, Finns have a special gift they can share with the world.
Year
2021-2022
Project scope
Destination rebranding
Brand audit
Brand foundation
Visual identity
Content strategy
Web analytics
Digital design
UX/UI design
Design system
Campaign design
Web development
Project in a nutshell
Tourists are increasingly using the web as a source of travel inspiration and information. Visit Finland, operated by the Finnish Tourism Board, set a goal of making the country the top choice for mindful travellers. Environmental factors and conscious travelling – driven by well-being – are becoming more and more significant in travel.
We created a brand experience heavily rooted in senses that translates the unique gifts Finland, the happiest country in the world, can share with tourists. A co-creative design process and a scalable visual identity optimised for the digital environment fuel the new version of visitfinland.com – all completed in 1.5 years. The site has welcomed you through 9 languages, 3 B2B sites, and 5 campaign pages.
Starting point
Creating an inspiring and functional digital brand experience to attract mindful travellers
More and more tourists are using the web as a source of inspiration and information. This has increased the demand for a stronger and more interesting digital presence, leading Visit Finland, operated by the Finnish Tourism Board, to partner with us to co-create a differentiated digital brand experience aimed at attracting mindful travellers worldwide. The aim is for visitors to dream of Finland, get inspired by it, and plan their stay.
The new cadence of travel is more deliberate, introspective, and soulful. In addition to environmental factors, conscious travel is increasingly driven by well-being considerations. Empowered by over 5 million people living in the happiest country in the world, we explored the special gifts that Finns can share with the world and translated them into a brand experience heavily rooted in the senses. Whether you encounter Visit Finland in physical or digital environments, it is a sincere invitation for you as our guests to experience the first flavour of Finnish hospitality.
Strategy
Co-creation, stakeholder interviews, extensive research fueled by real data, and user feedback
The design of the customer-oriented digital brand experience was shaped through design research methods, user interviews, and co-creation workshops. In the end, over 150 internal and external stakeholders, as well as international travellers from target markets, participated to ensure their voices were reflected.
As the epitome of insightful research, six traveller mindsets were created based on 50 qualitative interviews with key stakeholders and 100 in-depth interviews with international travellers. Providing a comprehensive understanding of travellers, they shed light on new possibilities for better supporting customers with the client's experience offering and helping them to understand how to interact and engage with them.
Based on multiple co-creation workshops with Visit Finland employees and international stakeholders, we have developed a shared vision together. Finland has a personality full of contrasts, which can be seen in its creative and caring mindset that manifests itself as cool and credible.
The new strategy with six guiding principles was investigated: Stay real, Trigger emotions, Be bold, Be adaptable, Be accessible, and Be sustainable. They provide inspiration and direction for meaningful encounters between the user and Visit Finland. Each value has been a critical guideline in both design and content streams to build a scalable and adaptable identity for the digital environment.
In content design, a holistic information architecture has been reimagined, and the new navigation has been validated through user testing and interviews. A modular and smooth flow of content shows dedication to navigational simplicity.
Also, the shared vision has been translated into guidelines for creating digital content in a coherent tone of voice. VisitFinland.com is the only digital “host” that offers visually inspiring content as well as concrete information throughout the journey (dream-plan-book-live-share) of international travellers. Therefore, each piece of content brings the visitor one step closer to Finland.
Creative solution
From static to dynamic, an adaptable brand experience as Finnish happiness and nature welcome you
Visual identity rooted in Finnish happiness and nature
Built on the extensive amount of insight research, interviews and co-creation workshops, happiness as sensory experiences became the main differentiating concept. We explored visually translating one sense to another, such as dynamic facets of nature into an animated logo, the sound of Finland into colours, and natural texture into tactile patterns.
Think with your senses, feel with your mind
It has long been known that utilising the five senses can stimulate regions of the brain associated with memory and emotional responses. In the case of Finland, this would be happiness. When you start to think with your senses by noticing what you see, hear, taste, touch, and smell, everything changes. You will naturally tune to what pleases you. This is where experiencing Finland comes in. Sensing heightens awareness of place and purpose by reconnecting you with the bigger picture and nature. You intuitively tune to what you value, which makes you aware of timing, purpose, and direction. Life is smoother.
Dynamic brand elements amplifying sensory experience and perception of content
Moving images and animations play an active role in the brand identity, triggering the imagination and activating the senses of the user. This helps to create a deeper connection between the user and the content, as well as reinforcing the emotional response and memory associated with the experience.
Finnish landscape keeps expanding into typography. Inspired by the ’50s and ’60s, ABC Ginto is an exuberant geometric-humanist typeface that delights in tension, perfectly combined with Avenir for body copy.
ABC Ginto is a variable font that has unlimited possibilities in terms of efficiency, sensory diversity, and accessibility. As a single file containing all styles, it allows for a smaller download size and interactive typography based on data or user interaction, such as weather, brightness, sound, and cursor position. It can also help address readability issues through context-responsive type display settings.
Animated patterns and illustrations are an integral part of the brand identity, adding vibrancy and visual interest to places where images or colours alone are insufficient. The patterns are designed to be tactile and reflective of the characteristics of different regions in Finland, further amplifying the sensory experience of the brand. The illustrations, created by Christopher De Lorenzo, add a touch of Finnish quirkiness and can be used as Easter eggs, or hidden surprises, throughout the brand's digital and physical presence.
Moments of happiness are new content curated to introduce the essence of Finnish happiness. The big secret? To appreciate small happiness.
The idea is to showcase how small moments and experiences can bring joy and happiness, and to capture those micro-moments that make a Finnish experience unique. These moments are reflective of Finland's unique selling points and lead the user to related articles and recommended travel products.
The adaptability of Finnish landscape across all channels and targets
We set out to deliver beyond the brand foundation and visual identity. One of the key drivers was to consider how to scale the brand to other ecosystems by embracing systemic thinking. The landscape of Visit Finland stretches to serve various needs, from physical to digital, and regional to business.
Four regions of Finland can utilize the regional palettes which originated from each region's sound and colour scheme, with a focus on regional personality. Sustainability, one of the key drivers, has also been assigned its palette to emphasize the significance of the topic. As for platforms targeting B2B customers, the main Finland theme is easily translated into the assigned B2B palette, avoiding the complexity of usage.
Implementation
A scalable digital design library for 1 B2C website in 9 languages, 3 B2Bs and 5 campaign pages in 1.5 years
Based on the dynamic, systemic brand identity, all visual elements have been smoothly translated into building blocks of the Finnish landscape in digital form. The library consists of over 40 flexible components, which have been used to shape all layouts across four websites and five different campaign pages. This benefits both developers by streamlining the implementation process and content creators by equipping them with flexible template selections.
Scalability between B2C & B2B, and more
Visit Finland's systemic brand identity serves travellers, service providers, and external partners. It was critical to streamline the implementation process by ensuring a shared identity and clear differentiation between B2C and B2B platforms. Direct theming between B2C and B2B components enabled agile development, allowing for visual and functional additions based on the target audience's needs, such as hero variations with animated patterns and event calendars.
Agile way of working fueled by user validation and data analysis
1.5 years of development divided into three big chunks of a design sprint. The constant round of design, review, test and iteration had refined design decisions fueled by concrete user validation and data analysis. Close collaborations between key players–product owners, visual designers, UX designers, content designers, developers and data analysts– enabled rational decision-making and prioritizing tasks with the user at the centre.
DataHub integration linking travellers and service providers
The Visit Finland DataHub is a crucial component of the new website. All product information on the website is sourced from the DataHub database, which currently includes almost 1,500 tourism businesses and nearly 5,000 products, with the amount of data constantly growing. The integration between DataHub and the website benefits both tourists and the tourism industry, as it makes it easier for visitors to find relevant services, and encourages tourism businesses to invest in high-quality product information and photos on DataHub.
Results
More visual, dynamic, accessible, and digitally optimised web experience
The new version of the official Visit Finland website was launched as the main window for the public at the beginning of 2022, and it has been continuously evolving and developing to meet the changing needs of travellers and partners.
One of the 10 Best-Designed Tourism Websites in the World 2022
The new identity and website have gained positive recognition from the public. Visitfinland.com has been named of the 10 Best Designed Tourism Websites in the World 2022 by Skift.
“The website is a smooth, transparent, and, of course, familiar experience — one that is both modular and linear, showing dedication to navigational simplicity. The complete use of full-screen photos and stunning imagery is a highlight, as well as the level of scroll-responsive interactivity visitors experience as they explore the site. The layout feels particularly responsive to the nature of the Gen Zers who spend all their time on social media “saving” posts and ideas.”
Visitors spent more time with inspiring and practical content
The overall satisfaction with the new identity and website has increased both internally and externally, as evidenced by the average time spent per session, which has more than doubled since last year.
The scalable, flexible visual system facilitated the customisation of a series of five international campaign pages for different contexts and targets. For example, quiz campaigns resulted in high engagement among users. Additionally, Autumn Foliage Live, an AI-based map fueled by historical data and weather cameras around Finland, was covered and recommended by YLE. The inspiring content always guides users to curated products, helping them dream and plan their journey with concrete steps towards calmness and happiness.
See you in Finland!
See you in Finland!
Design and production
Accenture Song
Customer
Business Finland
Illustration
Christopher De Lorenzo
Category
Best digital service
Best design
Best implementation