200 million+ impressions for #checkinginxmas

Branding & Campaigns: Santa Claus / Weibo

We established the city Rovaniemi’s status as the Official Hometown of Santa Claus among Chinese netizens - the branding campaign resulted in more than a billion views across Chinese social media.

About Rovaniemi

Rovaniemi is the capital of Finnish Lapland, located in the Arctic Circle, and Visit Rovaniemi is its local tourist board. Visit Rovaniemi wanted to improve its status within the Chinese market as the Official Hometown of Santa Claus. 

The Campaign

In the campaign we used Santa’s reputation and the power of storytelling in social media to raise awareness about Santa Claus’ home town: Rovaniemi. The main campaign included several live-streams and a make-a-wish platform where Chinese social media users were encouraged to share their wishes with the hashtag #checkinginxmas. 

Using Weibo, the “Chinese Twitter” as the primary channel to establish the presence of Santa Claus, we got @SantaClausofficial account verified as a real, personal account - something usually granted only for celebrities and highly unusual for a fictional character.

RESULTS

After four years of continuous account management together with Visit Rovaniemi, @SantaClausOfficial has over 224 000 active followers on Weibo and the campaign has become the most successful digital campaign for the city of Rovaniemi. 

We gain new Weibo followers daily, and fans interact with the account tagging @SantaClausOfficial when sharing their experiences from Rovaniemi. The @SantaClausOfficial account has become loved and trusted amongst Chinese consumers and a desirable partner for big Chinese corporations such as Alibaba. 

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