Tour de Digital Wonderland

Bolt, e-Estonia Briefing Centre, Funderbeam, Microsoft, Starship Technologies, Superangel, Veriff

2020

Suhtekorraldus / Sündmuse/ürituse kommunikatsioon

Miltton

Kaspar Jõgeva

Olga Korneitšik,

Mari-Liis Kitter

As our planned press trip was Miltton's initiative, then we had to get funding from private sector companies. The target markets were chosen together with the funding entities. As we intended to attract and host journalists from top tier channels and demonstrate a developed tech-savvy society, then our press trip as a product had to express the same values. The attendants time-travelled from Estonia at the beginning of the 90s to modern Estonia. Former CTO of Estonia Taavi Kotka opened the first day at Hotel Viru Currency Bar by sharing Estonian challenges after regaining independence. A small agricultural country with an average monthly net wage of 30 euros was introduced. Journalists met prominent people during the time travel – Ahti Heinla (Starship), Martin Villig (Bolt), Kaarel Kotkas (Veriff), Kaidi Ruusalepp (Funderbeam), and public figures as our Madame President Kersti Kaljulaid, who hosted the journalists privately at Kadriorg. The agenda had to be strong enough to attract prominent press, and it was. We understood that the exposure in the international press depends on the experience. It had to be exceptional. We planned the press-trip according to the perspectives of service design. Some examples. The journalists received a Bolt promo code to travel from airport to hotel. We used an Ikarus bus to go from the hotel to Skype to imitate the 90s. As we had a tight schedule, we used Whatsapp for group comms, and Worksup for a digital agenda to keep attendees up to date. The first evening was full of Estonian traditions with fish dishes, hand-crafted beer, a proper cave sauna and swimming in the Baltic sea. We spent the second evening at Taavi Kotka's home-office, where he explained the global future of digital societies and Estonia's role in it. The outcome? 20+ news articles got published in seven languages including top tier channels as Asahi Shimbun, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Gazeta Wyborcza, Les Challenges, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and The Next Web.

Our portfolio includes Estonian startups, who face a similar challenge – building brand awareness or brand recognition in foreign markets. In general, a journalist reports if there's a milestone as a funding round. But companies don’t raise funds every day. We decided to tell a story of a Digital Wonderland by tailoring a press trip. 20+ articles got published, many of those in top tier channels.