Dresscode: Freedom

Creative Director: 
Heli Roiha, Annu Terho (SEK)
 Copywriter: 
Annu Terho (SEK)
 AD:
Heli Roiha (SEK)
 Account Director: 
Hanna Nordgren (SEK)
 Account Manager: 
Emilia Hallberg (SEK)
 PR Specialist: 
Elisa Korhonen (SEK) 
Content Designer:
Jan Paasonen, Joni Luhtala (SEK)
 Retail Manager, Norway & Finland: 
Aapeli Helkkula (ZALANDO) 
Marketing Manager Finland: 
Krista Autio (ZALANDO) 
Copywriter: 
Meri Saarivirta (ZALANDO)
 Market Lead: 
Virpi Väkeväinen (ZALANDO) 
 Production Company:
 Simelius Simelius
 Director: 
Nana Simelius, Juhana Simelius (Simelius Simelius)
 Producer:
 Nana Simelius, Juhana Simelius (Simelius Simelius)
 Cinematographer: 
Juhana Simelius (Simelius Simelius)
 Photography: 
Nana Simelius (Simelius Simelius)
 Stylist: 
Meri Milash
 Hair & Makeup: Fatma Bendris
 Music: 
Sasu Rönkä (ItsLee Music)
 Talents: Lars Svartström, Axu Saha, Juha Laurikainen, Tiina Lindfors
 Cinematographer for mini documents: Atte Heinonen Colorist: Sarrah Wilkman (GradeOne) Gaffer: Karri Pöykiö Steadycam operator: Alvi Pakarinen IM Consultant: Pauliina Karhu (Miltton) PR Consultant: Artturi Mikola (Miltton) Communications Coordinator: Oona Kivirinta (Miltton) Strategist: Reetta Wallen (Miltton) Senior Advisor/Account Lead: Eva Niskanen (Miltton) Partnership Manager: Ossi Lehto (Helsinki Pride) Executive Director: Aaro Horsma (Helsinki Pride) Strategist: Tomi Härmä

Background Clothes are the most visible way of expressing yourself. But historically, clothes have also been a symbol of freedom not yet achieved. A freedom to choose the way we dress has a vital role in building our identity.  
Zalando is a German online shop selling shoes, clothing and lifestyle products. The company operates in 14 countries. Zalando is widely known for its fashion but less so for its values: diversity and inclusion, which is why they support Helsinki Pride as well. Zalando wants everyone to have the freedom to express themselves by dressing the way they like.  
As a main partner of Helsinki Pride, Zalando wants its values to be truly visible rather than lightly involved. This campaign aims to stimulate social debate on issues important to the Pride community and strengthen Zalando as a socially responsible brand. People in minority groups have suffered: they have been shunned, called names, gagged and criminalised. We wanted to give them a voice. Idea Zalando’s Dresscode Freedom campaign turns the spotlight on true senior pioneers of the Finnish LGBTQ+ scene. The campaign shows these pioneers in outfits they were longing to wear decades ago but were unable to because of the prevailing intolerance – or the fear of being labelled mentally ill or a criminal. We focused on four wonderful human rights activists. The oldest face featured in the campaign was over 80 years old, the youngest almost 60 years old. In individual true story films of each pioneer they had a chance to tell their life story and what part fashion has played in their journey.  Strategy In 2021, Helsinki Pride celebrated some important milestones in Finland: 50 years since the decriminalisation of homosexuality, 40 years since homosexuality was erased from the mental health classification, and 30 years since the establishment of Helsinki Pride. Therefore, the focus of the public conversation was in these achievements. Our strategy was to get into this same conversation by telling stories about Pride pioneers who finally have the freedom to dress they would’ve wanted to when they were young. We implemented clothes into the conversation as a symbol of freedom and our stories became part of the overall narrative of pride community’s fight for equality. Execution Our pioneers chose clothes from the Zalando range that they would have liked to wear decades ago without being branded mentally ill or criminal. We filmed a fashion video with them, featuring them as today’s top models. We also made a video of each human rights activist in which they could tell their own story and about their relationship with clothes. We also made their stories available to the media and raised the conversation as a nationwide topic.  
The stories and the other material featured extensively on social media and in outdoor advertising. 
We also implemented popular local LGBTQ+ influencers in the campaign who shared their experiences of self-expression through clothes and had a chance to share their gratitude to the pioneers who had carved the way to their freedom.
 Outcome Dresscode Freedom advertising campaign reached 1,25 million individual Finns with altogether 25,3 million ad impressions. The campaign made an all time record in Brand Heat, which is Zalando’s own online metric including ratio between engagement and impressions and positive sentiment. Brand Heat was +11% higher than in Zalando Summer Campaign 2021 and +82% higher than in Zalando Pride Campaign 2020. While engaging the audience, it also made them to act: Click-through-rate rocketed up to +113% higher CTR than in Zalando Pride campaign 2020 and +59% higher CTR than in Zalando Summer Campaign 2021. 
 
Additionally the stories of the pioneers were engaging also in PR. In Finnish news media they got a total amount of 7,9 million impressions in various articles in country of 5 million people. Conversation was raised all the way to the main media in Finland. As a local campaign in a small country the results were outstanding.  Client comment: “The results of the campaign were staggering and we were very pleased with them: in fact, all the targets we’d set for the campaign were exceeded. The concept was great, all in all, and its implementation was of the highest quality. The agency was able to help us quickly even in unexpected situations. We have received a lot of very good feedback on the campaign.”