Metsä Spring

San Francisco, together with Metsä Spring, created a comprehensive communications strategy that defined the company’s key marketing messages, mission and vision statements, as well as its main target groups and personas. In addition, San Francisco conducted a communications channel audit to understand where and how the desired audience could best be reached. We also refined the company’s tone of voice to better resonate with the intended target audience.

Since spring 2023, San Francisco Agency has collaborated with Metsä Spring on an annually defined communications strategy, overseeing the company’s media relations and social media channels in line with the long-term strategic framework. The work follows an annual communications calendar and is guided by clear numerical targets.

What we did

San Francisco Agency has systematically served as Metsä Spring’s communications partner across global English-language media, the Nordics, and the German-speaking regions of Europe. Each year, the strategy has been refined to both support Metsä Spring’s mission and build a positive perception of Metsä Group in different markets.
Every month, Metsä Spring runs a major PR campaign designed to effectively reach target audiences ranging from the technology sector to forestry media.
In addition, Metsä Spring’s social media channels share both company news and thought-provoking, educational content from the industry on a daily basis — helping to shape the image of the forestry sector and dispel certain common misconceptions about it.

Media Hits

612

As Seen in

Achievements

Since the start of the collaboration, Metsä Spring has received 614 media mentions in outlets such as Forbes, Yahoo News, The Next Web (owned by Financial Times), Dagens Industri, and Helsingin Sanomat. In addition, the company’s number of LinkedIn followers has nearly tripled through entirely organic growth, without spending a single cent on paid advertising. The company has also seen a significant increase in inbound contacts from startups in the industry — clear proof of successful communication with its target audience.

An annual third-party reputation survey among the general public also shows that Metsä Group’s image in terms of innovativeness has improved significantly. The company now performs several times better than its peers in perceived innovativeness, with results improving notably since the collaboration between San Francisco and Metsä Spring began. This demonstrates that communications efforts have successfully influenced public perception of Metsä Group as an innovative company within the traditional forest industry.

"We had never worked with San Francisco Agency before, but in the spirit of an innovation-driven company, we wanted to test a smaller agency with a proven track record of working successfully with innovative companies. We have been extremely satisfied with the agency’s systematic approach to achieving ambitious goals and their high level of transparency. We have been able to reshape the public perception of both the forestry industry and Metsä Group, and the Group’s innovation activities have also inspired our own employees since we began active external communications. We have been very pleased with San Francisco’s work and have seen tangible results in many different ways."

Niklas von Weymarn

CEO, Metsä Spring