Paradox Museum had already been successful in many cities and was expanding rapidly. In Finland, however, the situation was slightly different. Many Finns had already visited the Paradox Museum in Stockholm and might feel there was no need to visit again in Helsinki if the experience seemed the same. In addition, Helsinki city centre offers many attractive destinations, meaning strong competition for people’s time.

Another challenge was the extremely broad target audience, from children to grandparents, across Finland, as well as hard-to-reach tourists. While the museum’s location was central, the street itself was quiet and just half a block away from the main pedestrian flows. Sometimes even that distance makes a difference.

Paradox Museum is not a publicly funded cultural institution that can afford to wait for awareness to build gradually. Paradox Museum Helsinki is privately owned by a company that had made significant investments in the space and its structures. The museum needed immediate ticket sales to generate cash flow. Therefore, we had to create a launch that would rapidly build awareness even before opening and kickstart pre-sales. This was further complicated by the lack of visual materials from the still-under-construction museum, and the fact that we couldn’t use international assets, as the Helsinki museum differed from others.