The challenge in Finnish sports betting is that even though the nation loves sports, the actual betting is a niche pastime. We set out to make the big masses aware of sports betting by showing them how it could heighten their personal emotions in any sporting event.

Our concept combined two insights: Finns love sports and the emotions it evokes – and they are crazy about soap opera. We created a soap opera starring the most famous Finnish athletes and the iconic soap opera actor, Ronn Moss.

When the first episode premiered on Facebook it became the number one topic on all national news broadcasts. One of the biggest national tv channels aired the whole series trailer in their main news broadcast.

Results: 4.2 million contacts through earned media, this practically means the whole of Finland as we are a nation of 5.5 million people. Additionally, sports betting's weekly sales grew by 21%.

Key PR elements

- A unique and appealing setting: star athletes starring in a soap opera with Ronn Moss

- Ronn Moss and the athletes appearing on numerous PR-events, sports events and tv talk shows

- All of the main national medias talked about the campaign

- A national tv channel showed the series trailer in their main news broadcast

- The series was talked about in thousands of discussions online and people wished it would continue as a real tv series

- A national tv channel aired Game of Emotions as a real tv series amongst other content

Phase 1: Arrival (2 days)

Ronn tweets for fans a day before arrival: Teaser

Mobile phone pictures of Ronn and his wife at the airport sent to media anonymously.

Phase 2: Stay (4 days)

We contacted certain medias under NDA to interview and invite Ronn to talk shows on TV and radio. We did not reveal the reason of his stay.

Phase 3: a leak of his visit: NOT IMPLEMENTED

If the secret leaked that Ronn was here for a campaign for Veikkaus we had teasing material ready to use before the launch of main episodes of Game of Emotions.

Phase 4: the launch of the main episodes (2 weeks)

Episodes published every other day and published extra material: photos, stories online.

Phase 5: Sales

Game of Emotions used as one of the main activation. Ronn is seen in banners and ad´s as a spokespersons.

The interest in the campaign brought great results: 4.2 million contacts through earned media, this practically means the whole of Finland as we are a nation of 5.5 million people. The campaign also was a success in terms of sales: sports betting's weekly sales grew by 21%. We tripled our Facebook likes and the average time spent in our app was 1min 16 seconds! The best indication for the success was the fact that a national TV channel aired the whole campaign as a TV series. What was meant to be a Facebook campaign became coveted content on air!