Case Visit Lahti:“The fit between the influencer and our brand was perfect.”
When influencer marketing options are endless, decisions can no longer be made based on gut feeling alone.
Heidi Painilainen works at Visit Lahti as Marketing & Social Media Specialist. As a public-sector tourism organisation, Visit Lahti needs marketing decisions to be based on more than intuition. The team had prior experience with several influencer campaigns, but results had been inconsistent, and reach and engagement were not easily predictable.
For Visit Lahti, the objective was not simply to generate visibility. The campaign needed a strong idea, genuine compatibility between the brand and the selected influencer, and content that would resonate with the target audience.
“For us, the most important thing was that the influencer’s values match ours and that there is an idea behind it. Not just visibility, but content that genuinely speaks to the audience,” says Heidi Painilainen.
“The fit between the influencer and our brand was perfect.”
Moving from gut feeling to data-driven influencer selection
Influencer marketing presents marketing decision-makers with a familiar challenge: there are countless potential influencers and agencies available, but the fundamental question remains the same: which influencer will actually work for our brand, and how can that choice be justified?
Visit Lahti wanted a campaign that would stand out from traditional travel advertising while still feeling genuinely connected to Lahti. Luota Agency approached Visit Lahti with a ready proposal backed by careful groundwork. The compatibility between influencer and brand, content potential and possible risks had been analysed in advance using the Luota AI software.
The recommendation therefore did not begin with a familiar name or gut feeling. It began with the objectives of the campaign and an analysis of which direction had the strongest potential to deliver against them.
“Data clearly works, and this was not shooting in the dark. The compatibility between influencer and brand was perfect,” says Heidi Painilainen.
“When we approach a client with a proposal, we have done our homework,” says Veera Kansanaho, Luota Agency’s Senior Account Executive.
A creative concept backed by data
The campaign combined data-driven influencer selection with a creative idea designed to stand apart from conventional destination marketing. Visit Lahti gave significant creative freedom within the concept, allowing the content to feel natural rather than overly controlled.
The campaign was planned on a tight schedule, but the process remained clear. The final execution exceeded expectations and generated spontaneous positive discussion, with people sharing their own experiences of Lahti, tagging friends and continuing the conversation around the content.
“There was a little nervousness waiting to see what we would get, because we only gave a bunch of ideas and a lot of freedom. But the end result exceeded all expectations. It was a perfect package.” says Heidi Painilainen.
Results that made the decision easy to justify
The campaign demonstrated that strong creative work and measurable efficiency do not have to compete with each other. The content spread organically beyond the immediate audience and generated significant positive attention without sponsorship or paid advertising.
Cost-effectiveness confirmed the result from a commercial perspective, with the campaign achieving an organic CPM of approximately €8 without paid media.
“We have received a huge amount of positive attention and comments through this collaboration. The conversation has been purely positive,” says Heidi Painilainen.
For Visit Lahti, the result demonstrated what can happen when influencer marketing decisions are built around data, brand compatibility and a strong creative idea rather than familiarity or gut feeling.