How to approach traditional holidays in marketing?

When planning marketing campaigns, attention is often paid to annual holidays. The experience of the Baltic Station Market’s Halloween celebrations shows that a non-traditional approach and a lot of creativity bring the desired results. In addition to the excellent media attention, the show’s coverage was awarded a bronze in the Golden Egg event communication category.

Last autumn, the Baltic Station Market was in a situation where restrictions made it difficult to organise conventional events. So it started to gather ideas on how to keep the market buzzing differently. Since Halloween is strongly associated with pumpkins, there were plenty of options for decorating the market. However, everyone realised that using a pumpkin and pea shoot solution would not be enough to attract attention. Suddenly, Margaret Ishchenko, marketing specialist at the Baltic Station Market, had the idea of linking the Halloween celebrations to environmental issues. The ugly-faced pumpkins may be a bit scary, but the horrifying things are the ones that are happening around us in real life right now, especially for younger audiences.

So we decided to express environmental issues through installations. Taavet Bristol, the project manager who had previously created installations for I Land Sound, and artist Laura Pormeister came on board and helped put together a powerful artistic concept.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

• To draw attention to environmental issues and show how to preserve the environment better.
• To appeal to our everyday customers and bring in new customers. Earn a lot of media attention.
• Earn a lot of media attention.
• Raise awareness of the Baltic Station Market brand.
• Demonstrate the role of the Baltic Station Market in developing responsible business.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

We approached the marketing campaign creatively, and 11 installations were installed at the Baltic Station Market, each with a strong message referring to a specific environmental pain point.

The exhibition’s overarching theme was the environment – from the harmfulness of mass production to the problems of waste management. As a retailer, the Baltic Station Market has a vital role in promoting responsible business, and the exhibition was well suited to this, sending out an important signal that we should consume sensibly.

We supported the exhibition with media and social media activities and received much media attention in the first days. To ensure greater visibility and coverage, we amplified the media coverage on the Baltic Station Market Facebook page. In addition, Instagram posts showed the positive emotions of market visitors and introduced both the exhibition idea and the installations.

RESULTS

Thanks to the creative solution and well-done communication, we received attention in media channels we would never have reached with a classic marketing campaign. For example, “Ringvaade”, “Reporter”, and the Russian-language “Aktuaalne Kaamera”. In addition, media coverage in online media and print.

tThe reach of Instagram posts was ten times higher than the average, and the marketplace images spread organically on social media and in communities. There was also direct contact with market visitors who came to talk to the artists and ask about the installations.

Meta team

Riin Härma Senior Consultant