Reindeer Influencer Vesku Is The Face Of A New Finnish Lapland Tourism Campaign

05.03.2024 - 20:13 / forbes.com / Lapland

Visit Finland has hired a special new influencer to promote a new marketing campaign.

A reindeer named Vesku has been chosen as the face of ‘Trust the Wilderness” to boost the Finnish Lapland as a summer destination. While a reindeer is often associated with wintry conditions, Vesku is to advocate for seeing this vast wilderness location in an opposite season.

Vesku is an actual reindeer whose name was given to him by his human owner at Kujala Reindeer Farm in Kuusamo. You can read more about Vesku’s real-life story here.

Heli Jimenez, senior director of international marketing and public relations of Business Finland, said that the tourism board is thrilled to be collaborating with Vesku.

“Vesku is used to humans and likes humans, so it is easy to work with him,” explained Jimenez. “He looks like an influencer; he has many facial expressions and has a beautiful, special white face. With his beautiful face, he is very expressive and soulful. These were the reasons why Vesku was chosen for the ambassadorship.”

On the campaign’s website, Vesku, a young buck, is depicting as touting his knowledge of Finnish Lapland and what visitors can see and do there. Through the campaign, Vesku’s priority will involve choosing six people to visit Finnish Lapland through a curated summertime trip.

According to Jimenez, it was natural to select a local reindeer as a campaign ambassador to showcase key elements of Finnish Lapland, including outdoor activities.

“For this there was only one fit – a genuine local reindeer, being one of the main symbols of Lapland, knowing the Lapland way of life,” said Jimenez. “His human friends advised him of social media, and the rest is history; he became an ambassador and influencer.”

Vesku is going to be a busy young buck, with his Instagram account serving as how the vacation giveaways will commerce. Starting on Wednesday, March 6, this ambassador with antlers will begin an online competition called “Where I Am Wednesday” in which “he” shares clues on where he is in Finnish Lapland.

This is where the contest comes into play. Vesku’s followers have to not only guess where this dear deer is within the Finnish Lapland, but also to share the activity within this region that they’d like to most would enjoy taking part in.

The next step involves followers then having to tag a friend on Instagram that they’d like to bring with them; all this has to be done within a two-week time for Vesku’s followers to be eligible for the chance to win the contest’s initial three trips.

For the remaining three of the six trips, the response time is within one week. The winners will have to take these four-night trips for two between June 17 and September 30, 2024.