Team Finland:
Cardiff
Takeover

The Finnish men’s national football team “Huuhkajat” is regularly featured on the sports pages. But the Football Association of Finland wished the team would for once get attention off the pitch as well.

With a tight budget and a deadline coming up in 10 days, it was up to Duran to make this ambition reality.

The golden rule of earned media is: if you want people to talk about you, it’s not enough for you to say something – you must do something. Following this principle, we wanted to find something for Team Finland to do to hit the headlines.

And another thing: the Finnish media loves it whenever a Finn gets attention outside Finland for any reason. Any time we have a Finnish CEO ringing the NASDAQ bell on Wall Street, or a global pop star wearing a Marimekko shirt, the tabloids in Finland go bananas.

So, how to use these insights?

Photo on the left: Getty Images / Athena Pictures

In addition to understanding how the local media in Finland works, Duran people are also football fanatics. As Finland was about to play against Wales, we dug up from our memories the legendary slogan “WALES. GOLF. MADRID. IN THAT ORDER.”

A few years ago, the phrase was coined by Welsh fans to laud their star player Gareth Bale. Bale was being accused by his club Real Madrid of focusing more on the Welsh national side and on his personal love of golf than concentrating on his actual Spanish paymasters. The more the Spaniards got annoyed with Bale, the more the Welsh adored him. For them, this order was just perfect.

So, “WALES. GOLF. MADRID. IN THAT ORDER.” had became a true cultural icon, in Wales and for football fans all over the world. What if we Finns turned it around and created our own “order” instead? And what if we took it even further: how about bringing this new order right into the opponent’s lair, onto a huge digital billboard in downtown Cardiff?

That was it: SUOMI. SISU. SAUNA. IN THAT ORDER.

While you can never force a viral phenomenon, we felt quietly confident this stunt had legs. The Gareth Bale reference was niche enough to appeal to football enthusiasts, the fact of having a huge billboard in Cardiff would titillate the Finnish media, and the unconventionally bold attitude would grab people’s attention on social channels.

On match day, the Cardiff Takeover stunt dominated the street scene in the Welsh capital. In addition to the enormous digital screen, the message was repeated on the sides of roving video vans throughout the city.

The stunt generated headlines in the Finnish media:

• Ilta-Sanomat, the leading daily tabloid – “A huge Finland ad appears in the middle of the Welsh capital – makes a reference to a legendary outrage”
• Yleisradio, the Finnish National Broadcaster – “Team Finland’s sneaky stunt turns heads in Cardiff”
• Iltalehti, the second major tabloud – “Team Finland is advertised abroad – An ingenious barb”

… and even on BBC:

• BBC – Wales. Finland. Bantz.

“Talk about stirring it up. Some Finnish wind-up merchants have taken the now iconic Gareth Bale flag Wales. Golf. Madrid. and made a Finnish version – and put it on a billboard right in the centre of Cardiff! Suomi. Sisu. Sauna. translates as Finland, Strength of will, Sauna. Bantz, as the kids would say.”

In Finland, the stunt was also reported on by TV sports news and radio call-in shows.

In addition to the traditional media, Team Finland’s daring ad became a major talking point in social media. Images and comments on the subject gathered thousands of views and reactions on X, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and various forums. The general sentiment was that the usually modest Finns were positively surprised and proud about being brash and boastful for once.

According to the Finnish FA’s media monitoring tool, the Cardiff Takeover stunt reached an audience of 13.1 million through tabloid papers and Yle broadcasting. Add the views on BBC and social channels to this and the numbers begin to be truly mind-boggling!

As the original aim was to get maximal earned media visibility for something happening outside the pitch, with a modest budget, the result can only be considered a perfect success.

“We wanted something innovative that would bring Finns together and create real a stir. Duran Creative’s folks understood the brief immediately. Within a super tight timeframe, they came up with a creative idea that really fired up our marketing team 100%.” Mikko Laitinen, Head of Marketing, Football Association of Finland

“We wanted something innovative that would bring Finns together and create a real stir. We’re extremely satisfied with how the stunt was received in the media.”

Mikko Laitinen Head of Marketing, Football Association of Finland

(The only downer in Cardiff was that Team Finland were soundly beaten in the match itself. But hey ho, there’s always next time!)