Alko Today

Alko occupies a uniquely complex position. On one hand, it offers a carefully curated product selection, expert service and a rich culture around food and drink. On the other, it fulfills a broader societal mandate to promote public health and wellbeing within a tightly regulated legislative framework. The challenge was to create a communication concept that could: Make this dual role understandable and compelling Speak to multiple audiences with different interests Extend across digital and physical touchpoints Evolve over time as a growing content ecosystem Traditional campaign thinking was not sufficient for a challenge of this scale.

To address the assignment, we created a bespoke workshop process called Meaning Distillery (Merkitystislaamo), combining methods from strategic facilitation, brand development and content strategy. Before the workshops began, we conducted extensive background research, reviewing strategic documents, research material and broader societal sources, while also holding in-depth discussions with Alko’s communications team. During the process, one insight became increasingly clear: the number of meaningful reasons for Alko’s existence was not a complication — it was the message itself. There were not just a few arguments in Alko’s favor, but literally hundreds. This abundance became the foundation of the concept.

Alko Today was designed as a three-level communication architecture: The overview level — communicating that there are dozens, even hundreds, of reasons why Alko matters. The category level — organizing these reasons into larger thematic groups that could be targeted to different audiences and use cases. The individual reason level — each micro-story functioning as standalone content and, when needed, as the basis for a dedicated campaign. This structure transformed meaning into a modular and expandable communication system rather than a one-off campaign.

The first phase was launched as alkotanaan.fi, built using Contentful and React. The user experience drew inspiration from lightweight browsing applications such as Airbnb and Tinder, encouraging visitors to explore content intuitively and extensively. For launch, we produced 20 micro-articles and corresponding motion-based visual concepts developed through interviews with Alko experts. Each concept was designed to work equally well in video and still formats, ensuring that the material could be adapted across virtually any touchpoint. Potential applications ranged from: Social media channels Digital displays Presentation templates Shopping basket inserts Card decks In-store materials The production combined existing Alko assets, stock photography and newly created visual material.

The platform launched in spring 2023 with a comprehensive social media rollout and continues to evolve. More than a website, Alko Today was conceived as a living infrastructure for meaning-driven communication — a system that grows over time and operates beyond the limitations of traditional campaign cycles. In our view, the project represents a highly distinctive approach within Finnish marketing: a modular platform for continuously building and expressing brand meaning across channels and contexts.