Brittilehti’s Tampere glow was no accident – the background is a clever PR job

Pyhäjärvi steaming in winter weather and the beach landscape.
Pyhäjärvi steaming in winter weather and the beach landscape. The Times praised Tampere as a fairy-tale city you’ve hardly ever heard of.

The editor of The Times magazine made Tampere a particularly interesting city with one article. Behind the beautiful words is the city’s effective PR work.

The internationally known British newspaper The Times has named Tampere as Europe’s underrated city gem.

Hodges also went to see the *Snow Queen* ice ballet – and reportedly gasped.

Effective marketing in the background

– *The Snow Queen* was made with an international approach from the beginning. We hired a British PR agent and agreed on the kind of visibility and media we wanted.

Paulina Ahokas, dressed in blue, looks at the camera with a smile.
Paulina Ahokas, managing director of Tampere-talo, says that the sauna in particular made a great impression on the family.

Visit Tampere was also included in the PR plan.

– They immediately got excited about the idea and organized a wonderful program for the journalist and his family here, says Ahokas.

Hodges’ trip is covered by Visit Tampere. It was also mentioned in the article.

Sauna, Moomins and the Queen

According to Ahokka, such high visibility has a huge market value for both the city’s tourism and the *Snow Queen* ice ballet.

– The Times is a quality magazine that is read by several hundred people. In addition, their travel articles are read a lot, says Ahokas.

Ahokas himself visited the British family during the trip. They were surprised by the high cost of taxis, but there were still many positive things weighing on the scales. Such were, for example, the sauna and the world’s only Moomin museum.

– The fact that Tampere is the sauna capital and you can also find Moomins here is a completely unique thing internationally. We have communicated a lot about these and *The Snow Queen* afterwards.

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