Erottaja2 – From an unknown building to a popular attraction

The Neo-Renaissance palace in Erottaja, Helsinki was owned by the Finnish State for a long time. In 2018, the property was sold to an American venture investor who wanted to construct impressive office premises and restaurants in the building. Extensive publicity was sought for the building before the renovation in order to attract the interest of potential tenants. The Finnish company Trevian Asset Management, responsible for the building development, wanted to invest in marketing in order to attract the widest possible interest of potential tenants.

Drum’s team immediately understood that the marketing communications for this old property had to be done very differently than usual. Right from the beginning, the team decided to avoid the regular kind of property marketing relying on the property’s space utilisation possibilities, location and services. Instead, we decided to create a story and an experiential sensation for the building. And soErottaja2 was born. A historical building with a real story to tell. That is the story we wanted to highlight and bring every Finnish person to experience it on the spot. That would also be the way to find the best tenants

To support storytelling, an impression was attempted to create in all communications about the building being a rare opportunity for tenants. The message was that the building was in good hands and that its cultural and historical value was going to be preserved.

Drum designed the concept and main messages of marketing communications for Erottaja2. As the foundation for communications, we wrote a whole story for the building that summarised its extraordinary history from the war bombings to some interesting residents, such as the opera singer Aino Ackté. This story was widely utilised in advertising, communications and events.

Events were organised for several target groups at Erottaja2: the media, interior design influencers as well as real estate agents and professionals. The carefully selected media were invited to a closed press conference at the beginning of the year where, for the first time, it was possible to photograph the numerous details of a building that had been closed to the public for a hundred years. For the events, we also created an experiential multimedia room in cooperation with Dynamo&Son where a multimedia presentation of the history and future of Erottaja2 was displayed.

The season of events of Erottaja2 culminated in the autumn of 2019 when Helsinki Design Week took over the building and opened its doors to the public. HDW 2019 was an idea created by Drum and the project’s interior architect company Fyra in order to create lots of publicity for Erottaja2 and to effectively increase people’s awareness of the property. Helsinki Design Week brought nearly 14,000 visitors to the property and made Erottaja2 one of the most popular attractions of the autumn.

Media communications generated visibility quickly. Erottaja2 received over 60 media hits in print and online magazines as well as in radio and television over a period of a little over six months. Helsingin Sanomat, Yle, Kauppalehti, HBL and Markkinointi & Mainonta, among others, wrote about the property several times during 2019.

The property was strongly present in social media and blogs, especially in the autumn of 2019. Erottaja2 was written about in more than 20 blogs, and the hashtag #erottaja2 was used more than 1,000 times on Instagram. On Facebook, Erottaja2 was marked as a location almost 400 times. Erottaja2 was seen on Instagram stories at least 1,400 times.

The visibility through Erottaja2’s communications also profiled Trevian as a company.