Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Made in Finland
Petri and Pauliina Pirkola of WTF.
A touch of Bilbao in Helsinki.
Home is where your boat is The little motorboat, as CEO Petri Pirkola calls his creative agency WTF Helsinki, has taken a bold spurt across the Baltic Sea towards continental Europe. The possibilities of the Baltic region were so tempting that the whole family – business partner and wife Pauliina, baby Peppi and Eki Emilio, the furry woofer – jumped in the boat and moved to Tallinn, Estonia. By Taina Värri | Photos: WTF Helsinki
At the time of speaking to Pirkola, he and his family have been living in Tallinn for one week. The city itself was already familiar to them, but from now on it will be their hometown, too. The family feels at home already. “Our routines are quite the same here, thanks to Peppi and the dog,” says Pirkola. “I plan to join the local Niitvälja Golf Club, and we, my wife and I, love to run, which is easy to practise anywhere. And the people here are so friendly!” Pirkola is excited about the fresh market opportunities and the new way of working. “WTF has the concepting, branding and marketing skills that the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania can utilise.
In exchange, we get to work among 50 start-ups at the new creative hub Garage 48 in the very heart of Tallinn. This new environment provides a totally new burst of positive energy and networking, up-todate technical know-how and flexible cooperation. It is also smoother to manage things when your business partners are familiar with the local proceedings,” he says. The WTF headquarters, however, will stay in Helsinki. “At the moment it is just the two of us here in Tallinn, Pauliina and I. We are taking small steps, but I believe at some point during this year we will hire new staff here in Estonia too.” Diverse projects in South Africa and Hong Kong have been fruitful. Recently,
WTF Helsinki was invited to join Confrad, a chain of independent advertising agencies, as the country representative of Finland and Estonia. This collaboration has already opened up new partnerships and ventures in Denmark and Germany. “I like this,” says the CEO, smiling, “and the amount of talent here is totally absurd! We certainly are here to stay.”
WTF does branding and marketing for Finnish and Estonian companies, cities and municipalities.
For more information, please visit: www.wtfhelsinki.fi
Issue 67 | August 2014 | 47