challenge
Finnish artists don’t usually do well in the Eurovision Song Contest, and on the rare occasions they do, they still struggle to succeed in international music markets. Singing in Finnish makes it even harder to connect with global audiences. Our job was to amplify Käärijäs artist brand and make him relevant for global music markets via experiential marketing and PR.
“Traditional music promotion was not enough to build an artist image for Käärijä”
Nicholas Wilczynski – Head of Digital, Warner Music Finland
Strategy
Music labels tend to rely on “the product selling itself” and traditional music promotion in the Eurovision Song Contest – it is, after all, a great promotional opportunity for new artist, with a viewership of over 160 million people.
But why settle for that when there is more at stake than a song contest? We realised an opportunity to tap into even bigger audiences and make Käärijä a legend.
Our insight was that the other contestants were not his only competition. To make Käärijä a relevant and big name we had to compete against any global artist, creator, and entertainer. In order to create enough buzz, we had to create a viral, meme-worthy presence for Käärijä outside the Eurovision bubble and make him a phenomenon any concert goer and future fan would like to experience.
To achieve this, we decided to tap into virtual properties and Fortnite. A whole new world of music, pop culture and gaming we could use to promote and position Käärijä as an epic artist. After all, Fornite opens an audience of around 650 million who are on the platform and even more that are interested.
Creative Solution
Epic Games had just released an update to Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), allowing game developers freedom in creating their own maps and game experiences. At the same time, we had access to the photorealistic 3D model of The Senate Square, a virtually mapped landmark also used in Virtual Helsinki. We saw our chance to combine the two to create an unprecedented experience and pr campaign for Käärijä.
Käärijä became the first Eurovision artist to feature in Fortnite with a dedicated map, a significant milestone in artist promotion and leveraging gaming platforms for new entertainers in music. Before, all artists featured on Fortnite had been A-listers, so this also positioned Käärijä right up there with the likes of Travis Scott, Marshmello, etc. This was the first time an unknown artist used a virtual platform like Fortnite for their Eurovision promotion. The setting itself, the Senate Square in Helsinki, was also the first photorealistic city in Fortnite. Making the map a promotion for Finland’s most known landmark as well.
Execution
When the new UEFN update from Epic Games hit the news, we started working on the campaign right away. We partnered with Zoan, a metaverse pioneer. With their extensive experience with Unreal Engine, the technology behind UEFN, they started creating an immersive gaming experience. Once game development was started, we planned the campaigning and content to ensure Warner Music would make this a PR success for Käärijä. Epic Games themselves helped in the game development process, as they were eager to see creators and entertainers build their own experiences. Although Epic Games was not an official partner with our project, they gave close advice on building the experience visually and the use of sounds and music in the game. All the visuals and even the soundtrack was fully tailored for the gaming experience. Epic was excited to see their brand new creative tool used in the Eurovision music promotion for the first time..
With rapid game design and development we launched the Käärijä Goes Fortnite map in only three weeks. The map launched on May 3rd, while the update was released on March 22nd.
The game was full of promotional content. Players could explore the euro pallet-covered Senate Square, dance to ‘Cha Cha Cha’, or admire the giant Käärijä projections in the sky at the game’s climax, and more – all designed with PR in mind. Once a player had killed a wave of Zombies in the Senate Square, their avatar would experience a “Power Up” and Käärijä’s Cha Cha Cha would blaze through the game, giving the player superpowers. At the time, Epic had not built a leaderboard function into the game builder, but rumors have, some players defeated over 30 rounds of Senate Square zombies spending around 40 minutes slaying.
Building a first artist driven UEFN based map did not go unnoticed at Warner Music Globally. Their global Creative Directors kept close eye on the development of our project and how the press was engaged. Käärijä Goes Fortnite may mark a new age in music promotion for both new and more established artists who are looking for modern brand building and new revenue models for ther creative expression..
RESULTS
The campaign immediately generated awareness and discussion about Käärijä as a Fortnite featured artist.
