Barbecuing is an essential part of Finnish summer activities. No wonder—the country is full of perfect spots for barbecuing. However, not everyone has, wants, or even can afford a BBQ grill of their own. Also, especially in urban areas, many apartment buildings have prohibited barbecuing on balconies. Sharing economy platforms has become increasingly popular in Finland. In recent years the Finns have accustomed to the fact that you don’t have to own everything and have obtained the sharing economy mindset. Finland is for example known for its acclaimed library system. The brief and the goal was to make barbecuing equally accessible for everyone to enjoy–which was very much needed after slowly recovering the first phase of COVID-19. Also, we wanted to come up with a solution that was in line with the brand’s CSR values and goals: a sustainable way of barbecuing and an alternative for disposable grills.

The idea was to democratize barbecuing by making it free and accessible for everyone, regardless of income level or geographical location. And what would be a more suitable way of executing this than uniting the world’s oldest way of preparing food and the oldest way of borrowing things: barbecuing and libraries. We created a much needed, delightful, and sustainable solution for all barbecue lovers by bringing BBQ grills available for everyone. Atria, one of the leading food companies in the Nordics, donated BBQ grills to libraries around Finland for people to borrow.

The target group of the brand activation was all the Finns who love barbecuing, and among them, particularly: 1) conscious consumers who have obtained the sharing economy mindset not wanting to own everything they have. 2) consumers in urban areas without the possibility to barbecue in the backyards or in balconies. 3) consumers who can’t afford a BBQ grill of their own. The strategy was to make barbecuing accessible for as many as possible to enjoy through an unseen distribution channel: the libraries. The media strategy, with a zero marketing budget, was to create fuzz with one single PR-push to get the media’s attention and to gain earned media. The primary goal was to spread the word about the new innovative way of barbecuing and to strengthen Atria’s brand image as an inclusive and sustainable food company.

Atria, together with Finland’s praised library system, reached out to BBQ lovers with an unexpected, sustainable, and delightful solution. During Summer 2020, libraries around Finland started to lend out BBQ grills as the gathering restrictions caused by the coronavirus epidemic started slowly to ease. The collaboration with the libraries, one of the most widespread institutions in the world, made the brand activation scalable nationwide. The first BBQ grills donated by Atria could be borrowed from the libraries from the 8th of June. The grill set included the grill, a tote bag, a cleaning brush, and the instructions, and a safety manual. The brand activation was pre-hyped through one single PR-push to get the media's attention both domestically and internationally.

The campaign became a phenomenon among the barbecue-loving Finns: Atria was the market leader in the summer of 2020 with a market share of 28%. And with just one PR-push it became a hot topic both domestically and internationally accompanied with increased positive sentiment. The campaign reached over 36 million people with an earned media value of €340,574—all this with zero media budget.