A lot of good spirals from literacy

The Finnish Bible Society works for human dignity. Its fundamental function is to translate the Bible for different languages, and along the first translation the literary language is often created. Spreading literacy is another instrumental part of the Bible Society’s work.

Myy has been the Finnish Bible Society’s communications partner since 2014. Together, we have defined the identity of the Bible Society, clarified its messages, sought new donators and executed digital campaigns.

A paramount part of our collaboration is the annual Agricola campaign for global literacy. The campaign is focused around the Agricola’s Day in April.

As a result of our collaboration, a pastry dedicated to Mikael Agricola, who created the written Finnish language, was created, too.

Literacy programme for 20,000 African women

The goal of the Bible Society is to spread good through literacy skills gifted through the Agricola campaign. The goal is to teach 20,000 women in Africa to read – because the literacy of an individual benefits the whole community.

The 2018 campaign was conducted mostly in digital channels. A new, fresh landing page was launched to support the campaign. There, we published videos where Finnish actors were interviewed about the meaning of literacy. From more extensive contents we created micro-contents suitable for social media and DOOH marketing that helped to direct consumers towards donating.

The campaign’s contents where shared on social media channels. We also utilised native marketing as well as digital outdoor marketing.

PR to support the campaign

The 2014 created Agricola pastry got more visibility in 2018 when the earned media was crowned with MTV3’s Huomenta Suomi broadcast about Agricola’s Day, featuring the pastry.

One aspect of the campaign was also social influencing. We turned the attention of politicians globally into the matter of illiteracy still prevailing around the world through offering the Agricola pastry in the Parliament House’s café.

We had a record number of cafés participating in the campaign. There were 25 cafés selling the pastry in 12 different cities around Finland.

The communications challenge of the campaign was how to reach new audiences in Finland so, that the meaning of international literacy work would also be understood locally.

Terhi Huovari, Head of Communications, Finnish Bible Society