### Campaign concept built around a tech-savvy metaphor

SaaS stands for Software as a Service and CaaS stands for City as a Service. Playing with this metaphor, we listed Helsinki’s top features, filthiest bugs, and craziest in-app purchases. Using the same tech-savvy narrative throughout the video and website, the campaign’s target audience felt we were talking their language. Notifications sent and received.

###  The campaign website converted visitors into beta users

Through the website, tech talent could apply for a free demo trip, find open positions in top-tier tech companies and report any bugs they feel should be fixed. We listed Helsinki’s endless free features and framed them as the freemium option for visiting Helsinki. And as every SaaS company needs a credible spokesperson and CEO, we recruited the city’s Mayor Jan Vapaavuori to act as the CEO of CaaS. He made it through.

### User testimonial videos performed nicely as retargeting ads

We created a campaign video that pitched CaaS to the global tech audience. We also created shorter channel-optimized ad videos and interviewed international tech talent living in Helsinki to create user testimonial videos for carefully targeted advertising and retargeting.


“We were looking for 15 outstanding applicants – we ended up with 6,500 applications and a shortlist of 300 potential recruits. Tech talent from companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft truly competed over who gets to experience Helsinki.”

### One of the most successful brand campaigns of Helsinki

In less than a month, Helsinki received over 6,500 applications from the target group of tech professionals, including software engineers, UX designers, technical recruiters, data scientists, product owners and other tech specialists. Out of them, hundreds made it to our partner companies’ shortlist for future recruitment. The campaign was picked up by various media and described as clever and engaging by the world’s leading trend firm Trendwatching.

Results after one month*: 

### 70.2M – earned media reach
### 4.8M – social media reach
### 201 – articles written
### 6,550 – applications from +100 cities 

Smartly

wolt

supercell

whim

slush

relex

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Helsinki has everything needed for international tech talent to feel at home. The problem is, no one knows about its beautiful features and local tech companies struggle with recruiting the best people. To make everyone aware of what the Finnish capital city has to offer, we branded Helsinki as the world’s first City as a Service (CaaS) that attracted nearly 7,000 applications from tech talent worldwide.

Nearly 7,000 developers, designers, engineers, data scientists and other tech specialists from +100 cities applied for a free trial trip to the world’s first City as a Service, Helsinki.

Brand Campaing & Creative Concept for Helsinki City

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Bou – Case Helsinki City

Branding Helsinki as the world’s first City as a Service

### Secretive yet credible website to raise expectations

The new website has oddly twisted Nordic vibes, created by dreamlike landscapes and toned down colors. The strong use of black, dark grey and white add good posture for the content itself, communicating clearly what’s up but leaving enough gaps to encourage visitors’ imagination. For example, the imagery might – or might not – be snatched from the game itself. We’ll see, right?

TechCrunch

games industry biz

Helsingin Sanomat

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Talouselämä logo

Mainframe is the new North Star game company, formed by the world’s finest in AAA, MMO and mobile games. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Riot Games, the team is building an unannounced cloud-native MMO – “the game of a lifetime,” as they phrase it.


Launched! Mainframe Industries welcomed Andreessen Horowitz and Riot Games to create a cloud-native MMO – a true headliner game of the 2020s.

Launching the next major AAA game company.

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Bou – Case Mainframe

Launching the next major AAA game company

### Sticking Blok into people’s minds via memorable TV ads

Blok is still a rather unknown challenger among traditional real estate agents. To increase Blok’s brand awareness, we came up with a memorable campaign concept. We took the relatable problem of "getting stuck with apartment sales" to the extreme and positioned Blok as the modern solution for it. Supported by social media ads and re-targeting clips, the campaign truly ear-wormed the whole country. Videos were produced in Sweden by IAM Production and localised to Finland by us.

Blok ulkomainokset / Blok outdoor campaign

### Using famous riddles in a nation-wide outdoor campaign

The outdoor campaign’s objective was to raise awareness of how easy, affordable and simple it is to sell your apartment with Blok. In Finland, Blok’s primary market, there are several uniformly known proverbs for each of the value propositions. We thought: why not to use them as riddles and let people fill in the sentences? Eventually, these riddles teased apartment owners nation-wide.

### A witty digital campaign where weird dreams came true

As advertising inside the property industry is rather traditional, a humorous attitude was welcomed. This campaign concept, designed and produced by us, communicates Blok’s value proposition promptly: “Sell your house with Blok. Save money to fulfil your dream”. The horse was called Stormy and it was her first photoshoot. Yikes.

Blok is a fast-growing property tech company, listed as one of the hottest European startups by Wired. To challenge the market, Blok stands out not only with its award-winning product but also with its playful brand. A combination we really like.

A pan-Nordic TV campaign for Blok – probably the fastest-growing real estate company in the hoods. Before clicking, a gentle earworm alert.

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Bou – Case Blok

Creative campaign concepts for a real-estate startup sensation

__The World-famous “Nobody in Their Right Mind” -Banner__

The entrance banner of Slush 2016 caused some serious buzz around the world. It instantly gained thousands of shares with a potential reach of over 270M people during the first two weeks. Just as planned.

Fortune

Dailymail

Lonelyplanet

9gag

reddit

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__An Award-winning Website__

At Slush, the website is considered as the first touchpoint of the unique event experience and designed to reflect its dark and mystic vibes. Yet, the website’s primary business goal is to sell tickets and to inform visitors without a single compromise with the brand. Eventually, it sold out the event in record time, was praised for its informativeness by our customers, and won multiple design awards.

__The Best Print Cover of the Year__

It says “Failure is not the...” on the back and “...end of the world” on the front. And when the largest newspaper in the Nordics states “end of the world” on its cover, it gets attention, creates urgency and wins awards. The brand message was praised by its target audience, tickets sold like it was the last day to get them (it was – with the current price), and Helsingin Sanomat awarded our work as its best print cover of the year in 2016.

__Outdoor Countdown Campaign__

We have all seen day counters but we have not all seen creative day counters – until now. The best thing about outdoor ads is the opportunity to localise them in their environment. Right?

Slush is the world’s leading startup event that operates in 29 countries and hosts annually more than 70 events with over 40,000 attendees. The Wall Street Journal describes it not just as an event but rather as a laboratory of new ideas. Bou founding team was responsible for the award-winning marketing, communications, PR and design of Slush in 2016-2017.

Our founding team was responsible for the award-winning marketing, comms, PR and design of Slush in 2016-2017. Yes, that means the badass banner, too.

slush banner bou og

Bou – Case Slush

Marketing, communications, design, PR… Everything in-house for the world’s leading startup event

Our collaboration kicked off by designing Maki’s brand identity, crafting their website and nailing the launch and PR. We continue working closely with Maki team by building their brand on several fronts. 

Maki.vc is a Nordic top-tier venture capital firm founded by serial entrepreneur Ilkka Kivimäki​ and former F-Secure executive Pirkka Palomäki​. With a fund size of €80M, Maki.vc backs founders who never conform to industry standards. We have worked as part of the Maki.vc team since their launch in spring 2018.

Kicked off with a standout visual identity, smooth website experience and global headlines in early 2018. Today, we continue building Maki.vc’s brand on multiple fronts.

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Bou – Case Maki.vc

Global launch and continuous brand building for a top-tier VC

### Precise handcraft and Nordic mystique by design

Kaffa Roastery’s brand is a unique combination of precise handcraft and Nordic mystique. We applied their controversial visual identity into a compatible website and webshop experience. Switching to a dark mode with yellow highlights and exciting imagery guarantees Kaffa to stand out from the coffee masses.

### Developed with modern web technologies

The whole website must feel like you’re shopping. Home-delivered coffee subscriptions should be purchased quick and easy like Sunday morning. Handcraft coffee deserves to be sold in a React.js-based webshop, using Stripe and server-side rendering it all with NextJS on Google Cloud Platform. Check, check, check.

Kaffa Roastery is one of the leading Nordic micro-roasteries with an ambitious mission: to remove all the unnecessary middlemen from the global coffee industry. To join the journey, we planned, designed and developed their new webshop from scratch.

Kaffa Roastery’s brand new website feels like a sip of their superb coffee. Experience the new dark mode and see how clicking around makes you want mmhhmmore of it.

Bou – Case Kaffa Roastery – Thumbnail

Bou – Case Kaffa Roastery

A custom-made webshop for a leading micro-roastery in the Nordics

Carner (previously ProMan) wanted to stand out as an unmatched partner in sector-focused M&As and private equity services. The new name was to represent long-term companionship, perseverance and stability without being stuck-in-time. The meaning of cornerstone checks all these boxes. Drawing from that idea, Carner carries the same fundamental vibes while sounding dynamic and iconic.

After choosing the name, we gave a proper uplift for the brand’s visual identity. The logo stems from the cornerstone idea and the unconventional serif font supports it nicely. Primary brand colours and the golden warmth of the photography concept highlight timeless trust. The strong use of white space refreshes the final look. A credible identity, indeedo.

Carner is one of Finland’s leading corporate finance houses with 54 partner offices in 38 countries. The name stems from cornerstone – and coming up with it was the first step we took together in 2019. Back then, we gave the brand a proper uplift for the new decade.

Carner is a leading corporate finance advisory firm with 54 partner offices in 38 countries. And now they got the look too: we gave their brand a proper changeover for the new decade.

Bou – Case Carner – Thumbnail

Bou – Case Carner

Re-branding a leading corporate finance advisory firm

In fall 2018, Umbra launched their new Composit platform that allows anyone to experience the entire world in high-res 3D by creating an immersive copy of the globe. Together we delivered a successful PR campaign and reached an international audience and a niche segment of industry experts. 

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Tech.eu logo

3d print industry logo

Spar 3D logo

Umbra unlocks the power of the AR cloud like no other company in the world. They make it easier to create, share and view 3D content in real-time. We have worked with Umbra to share their story and tech to the world.


When someone is copying the globe to the detail of a single grain of sand, the world deserves to know about it. We launched Umbra’s revolutionary 3D modeling product and reached just the right industry experts.

Bou – Case Umbra

Launching a cutting-edge tech product in international waters 

We delivered a platform with a simplistic, clean and extremely smooth user experience. The story continues with fine-tuning the service flow and user onboarding even further.

bob w. mobile animation and desktop view 

Bob W. is an accommodation booking platform offering the feeling of a boutique hotel in authentic homes. Standing for the best of both worlds, Bob W. aims for the most fluent experience also online. That’s where we stepped in: to design and construct the website from zero in just two weeks.

Marketers, designers, writers and developers working with 50+ brands in Europe and the US. Rooted in the Nordics, shaped by tech. At your service, starting tomorrow.

Call it like it is. We are marketers, designers, writers and developers. Shaped by tech.

Bou

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