Salla 2032 / Save Salla – House of Lapland (Africa)

Leveraging excitement around and interest in the late running Tokyo 2020 Games, a January ecology and sustainability campaign from the House of Lapland (a Finnish regional tourist board) and Fridays For The Future (a youth-led, non-profit ecology movement) initially called ‘Salla 2032’ and later evolving into ‘Save Salla’ saw the Finnish town of Salla (population 3429) become the most mentioned town on Twitter for three weeks running as it generated attention around the climate crisis via a spoof bid to host the Olympic Games.

Territory: Finland / Global

Agency: Agencia Africa

Objective

This campaign was initiated by the Brazilian marketing agency Agencia Africa in cooperation with the Fridays For Future movement launched by Greta Thunberg and the House of Lapland (a joint marketing and communications agency of the Lapland municipal regions) to raise awareness around the climate crisis.

The idea was to act as a rally cry and to demonstrate that the climate issue is not just a struggle for individuals or municipalities, but a global issue. The contribution of every single person is needed in the fight against climate change. A change in society, practices and ways of thinking can only be brought about if it involves the majority of the population. Small streams make big rivers.

The joint marketing and campaign team selected Salla, which is located in the Arctic region just north of the Arctic Circle, as the focus of the project because of a blend of environmental, location and activity factors. Plus the fact that the municipality of Salla and local businesses are actively communicating their promises of responsible tourism and concrete climate actions.

Activation/Campaign

The campaign kicked off in January when a launch spot filmed in winter conditions announced the town was applying for the 2032 Summer Games.

Despite its minus-20-degree (Celsius) winter temperature, the initiative caught fire with a controversial bid to become the host city for the 2032 Summer Olympic Games. The tourist board sought to comply with as many of IOC bid rules as possible and even created a mascot, uniforms, a logo and a 220-page bid book.

But, as the creative evolved and the mayor held a live press conference, it turned out that the bid was a hoax to raise awareness about the climate crisis by highlighting how if current rates of change continue, a city close to the Arctic Circle could be warm enough to host the Summer Olympics in a decade.

Indeed, the day after the video was released, a press conference was held in Salla, remotely, explaining that Salla didn’t really want to host the summer games but to draw attention to climate change and its impact. This was the second launch of ‘Save Salla – Save the Planet’: a climate change campaign which gained the widespread attention of media outlets all around the world.

Outcome

Thus far, the campaign has accumulated 7.5bn views in over 60 countries and the initiative was reported to be responsible for increasing social conversations on climate change by a massive 879%.

It has won several international advertising and marketing awards and if there was ever a trophy awarded for climate change awareness, surely Save Salla would win it.