Visit Finland has created an online Finngenerator, which tells users what they would be called if they were a Finn. The generator launched in the UK on 19th March 2014, following the successful launch of the Japanese version at the beginning of the month, and so far over 1,200,000 names have been generated worldwide, almost 41,000 of which have come from the UK.

The Finngenerator has proved itself to be a successful way to attract people to the Visit Finland website, visitfinland.com. In the application's first week, there were over 140,000 visits to the Japanese version of the site, representing an increase of more than 1,650% compared to the previous week, according to Mervi Holmén, marketing director at Visit Finland. 

Users simply enter their name and gender into the online application, and the Finngenerator reveals the Finnish equivalent, along with a short explanation.  All of the generated names are related to nature in some way, since the generator is built to reflect that nature is present everywhere in Finland, even in names. This was initially created in response to the Japanese market's particular interest in Finland's natural surroundings and the Finnish language.  Many of the nature-related names come from the Kalevala, the nineteenth-century work of poetry, widely regarded as the national epic of Finland.

Following the success of the Finngenerator in Japan, the application is now growing in popularity across other markets, with a large number of hits in the United Kingdom and the United States following the launch of the English version. A Chinese version of the Finngenerator launches in April. 

The Finngenerator campaign was planned and executed by the Finnish brand design agency, SEK, part of Grey Global, and the media agency Voitto. The application was produced by digital agency Byroo.

Try out the Finngenerator at  http://www.visitfinland.com/campaigns/finngenerator/public/en/. 

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For further information on Finland please visit www.visitfinland.com or call Jules Ugo or Georgina Oakley at Lotus UK on 0207 953 7461 or email firstname@lotus-uk.co.uk

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