Welcome to the Offline Island: A phone-free island captivated media and travellers

An offline nature experience, aimed at promoting mental wellbeing, managed to sell out access to the Finnish island for the whole 2023 summer season. Despite a small budget, the bold campaign achieved a tremendous amount of media attention with a striking creative idea and a socially relevant angle.

In our hectic modern world, vacationing on an island without phone access sounds heavenly to many of us. The regional tourism board of Kotka-Hamina decided to do just that: with their creative agency SEK, they declared the Finnish island of Ulko-Tammio the world’s first offline island in the summer of 2023.

“We are all more or less addicted to our screens. Devices, glued to our hands, are taking a toll on our wellbeing. In this world, where even holidays need to be ‘Instagrammable’, the unknown Finnish island of Ulko-Tammio provided a solution. We declared it ‘The Offline Island’, the world’s first phone-free tourist destination, and convinced visitors to go offline,” Mats Selin, Project Manager at Visit Kotka-Hamina, says.

Spending time in nature is a vital way to combat digital burnout, and its proven effects on wellbeing are central to Visit Kotka-Hamina’s brand. Ulko-Tammio, a remotely located, uninhabited island with unspoiled nature, is an ideal location to experience these mental benefits firsthand.

In the age of omnipresent social media and a ‘pic-or-it-didn’t-happen’ mentality, travel destinations often offer aesthetically pleasing, Instagram-worthy photo opportunities. Against this backdrop, it was revolutionary for Visit Kotka-Hamina to provide the exact opposite: a place where visitors should cover their phone cameras and screens so they can enjoy the actual experience fully.

“The campaign was an amazing success, combining creativity with an important social message. A big thank you goes to our client, who had the courage to implement this unique idea together with us. It’s wonderful to see that the story of the world’s first offline island continues in the summer of 2024,” says Janne Malinen, Client Director at SEK.

From a travel slowdown to a record number of visits

Tourism had taken a dive due to the area’s proximity to Russia. To increase the appeal of the region and its archipelago as a travel destination, the tourism board needed a creative idea using very limited resources.

The campaign strategy relied heavily on earned media and the power of hand-picked influencers – armed only with Polaroid cameras to share about their experience after. The phoneless influencers made for an interesting story and could reach Visit Kotka-Haminas target audience mid-scroll once they shared their experiences after the trip. The concept was also incorporated into official signage and screen covers for visitors.

Phone detox while traveling proved to be a compelling angle for both Finnish and international media. Prestigious international outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, CNN, Bloomberg, and CBS as well as top-tier Finnish media outlets covered the campaign. The media outreach brought in more than 1,200 articles in the media and a potential reach of 3.4 billion.

The media attention led to tangible growth in travel numbers: overnight stays to the cities of Kotka, Hamina, and Loviisa grew by 8.4% compared to previous year. Ferries to the island of Ulko-Tammio were completely sold out for the summer 2023 thanks to widespread media coverage.

Source: SEK

  Campaign, Finland, Kotka-Hamina, Marketing, SEK, Ulko-Tammio, Visit Kotka-Hamina