Blog: Earned Excellence

By Fredrik Heinonen: 

Amsterdam, the city of canals, cheese and tulips, among other things. And, last Thursday, of cheery European communications professionals. The European Excellence Awards ceremony took place for the fifth time and it was a bonanza of great communications work. Out of a total of 1300 entries, 285 cases where shortlisted. Talking to peers and friends from across Europe, one thing became strikingly obvious - the paradigm shift is gaining pace. Across Europe, PR and communication agencies are neck/neck with the traditional advertising agencies and gaining more and more momentum and importance as strategic partners for marketers. And it all boils down to the increasing importance of earned, honest and meaningful communications that is pivotal in gaining consumer interest in the modern landscape. It's most evident in Sweden, a beacon of communications and marketing, where according to a ranking of Dagens Industri earlier this year, four out of the five top marketing communications have origins in PR. It didn't look that way a few years ago.

Back to Amsterdam. Finnair, together with Miltton, won two gold medals for the Quality Hunter 1 and Angry Birds Asian challenge campaigns. Analyzing a bit deeper than the bling and the glam, these two cases show what you can do by utilizing earned media to create global awareness and drive business. Finnair has really earned these gold's by being a frontrunner in using earned media in their international communications.