Meet the Two-Man Finnish Agency That Was Winning Lions from the Start

Erma&Reinikainen is a two-man agency. That’s just about the smallest agency possible, by our reckoning. That said, the Finnish duo emphasise that they are supported by a network of professionals ranging from business strategy to PR and film production. 

Although they only set up shop together in 2022, Aleksi Erma and Erno Reinikainen have followed the old ‘friends first’ formula. They met around 15 years ago, when Aleksi, still a teenager then, was working in a shop selling jeans. Erno is about the same age as Aleksi’s older brother, so he presumes that was the link, although it wasn’t a crystal-clear moment. “I gotta say, I hardly remember anything,” says Aleksi.

At the time, Erno had a creative job at an ad agency. Aleksi wasn’t at all jealous of his new friend at first. “I didn't know what I was going to do when I was grown up, but I knew for sure that advertising wouldn't be it,” says Aleksi. “I have a bit of family baggage there, because my father worked for decades in the industry as well, and my brother is a copywriter. So I was always wanting to do something else, but here we are then.”

Erno loved advertising though, and eventually over beers started “luring me into thinking about a marketing concept for the clothing store. And I guess that was the first time we actually threw out some ideas together.” 

When Aleksi’s father died in 2015, it changed his anti-advertising perspective. “He had worked for decades in the industry and I guess that was sort of a turning point. I thought, well, if he's not working there anymore, maybe I can then do it. There's room. I also graduated during that time. So it was sort of a turning point overall.”

By that point Erno was working at the internationally recognised shop TBWA\Helsinki. After years more luring, Aleksi joined too in 2018.

The pair maintained their ‘just friends’ relationship for another three years before they ever got to actually work together on a live client brief. It was for Boston Beer Company in 2021, launching a Finnish ‘long drink’-inspired beverage called Bevy. 

So when they set up shop together, it was mostly built on trust that they had good chemistry and knew good advertising. “It was pretty much a leap of faith,” says Aleksi. “We were friends and liked each other, but we didn't work that much together. Then, out of the blue, Erno just sent me a text message saying that he'd been wanting to talk to me about something.” They had both been considering taking a leap it seems. “That made my decision,” says Aleksi. “I wanted to keep doing this work, but in some other manner. And that was such a quick decision, but it's paid off nicely.”

That was early 2022 and that’s how Erma&Reinikainen was born.

Soon they were helping friends on pitches and testing the waters, but before long they had real client briefs. The biggest opportunity came from Nordic pet care specialist Musti Group, who asked them for a New Year’s Eve campaign to remind people to celebrate responsibly and consider how fireworks affect dogs. Setting a precedent for non-traditional work right off the bat, the campaign ended up taking the form of a 20-foot virtual dog at the official New Year’s event of Helsinki. The dog reacted to loud noises caused by fireworks in real time.

“Even though Finland is quite a small and remote country with a small market and small budgets, we have always thought that we can compete in the big league with ideas,” says Aleksi. “And same goes for the size of the agency. With the first New Year's Musti campaign we kind of proved ourselves that both cases can be true, that you can come up with something excellent from Finland, even even as a two man team.”

It turns out the leap of faith was a good idea. The campaign won Erma&Reinikainen its first Cannes Lion. The team worked. “Our interests complement each other quite nicely,” says Erno. “Aleksi loves the beginning of the creative process, the creative strategy and finding the big idea. I always tend to have a strong vision of what works, whether the idea is good enough to go forward with and how it should be executed to make it as good as we imagine in our heads.” That doesn’t mean that Aleksi does all the strategy and Erno finishes all the work, but their enthusiasm is multiplied by these tendencies. “Usually, we sort of live in a quite nice symbiosis,” he adds.

There are parts of the job that neither are interested in quite as fervently. And so the pair are currently looking for a third member of the team to round out the agency.

Without an office, Aleksi and Erno don’t sit opposite each other all day long. In fact sometimes they go two weeks without seeing each other. They like this breathing space, meaning that disputes never snowball into arguments. “If one of us comes up with a shitty idea, we say out loud and move on,” says Erno.

Importantly, they agree over what sort of advertising annoys them. “We're both creative, but we always want to be logical also. We both get annoyed when people just throw some random execution ideas around, without them being based on something that actually would make sense.”

While a big virtual dog on a billboard is fairly out there as a marketing solution, it also serves the idea perfectly. While a simple PSA campaign saying that the dogs are harmed by fireworks might do just fine, the pair found that the biggest reason people set off fireworks is because the dogs are shut at home out of sight. “The people on the streets never meet them,” says Aleksi. “And that's where we used technology and outdoor media to bring the people who cause the problems closer to the harm they do. That hit home for the dog owners. But also, sort of it went where the problem really was and connected with the people that have probably never thought about the consequences their actions had.”

Their second campaign for Musti group was pretty different too. ‘Adoption Live’ was the world's first fully live-streamed outdoor campaign, which allowed people to kick off their pet adoption process via billboards that broadcast live from animal shelters, aiming to connect pets with their new forever homes, together with SEY Animal Welfare, Finland’s largest animal welfare organisation.

That won Aleksi and Erno their second Lion, their second year in a row. Amazing that they’re both quite allergic to cats and dogs. Aleksi laughs that he had trouble breathing for two days after setting up the live-streaming camera, but it was worth the sacrifice for the cats.

Another campaign for the same client was 'Don't Leave Me', which used a robot dog to bring to life the reality of leaving dogs in hot cars. The robot simulated the symptoms of a heat stroke, and its movements were triggered by the temperature inside the car it was placed in. Combining 3D-printed parts, fake animal fur and mechatronics, it was the first robot either Aleksi or Erno had built. 

The pair have worked on other clients as well, but the chance for Musti Group to make an emotional connection with audiences over pets is a unique opportunity that they are not wasting. Although the unconventional ideas can be hard to execute. Erno jokes that after ‘Adoption Live’ they agreed, “our next campaign is going to be just a plain print ad or something super easy. Let's not go for the extra mile this time. And then we end up building a real robot.”

When it comes to inspiration. Brands with longevity inspire the Nordic duo. Swedish carmaker Volvo is a pin-up for them for its consistent dedication to safety, such as inventing the three-point seatbelt and sharing the patent with other brands. “A few years ago, when they released all their safety data, it feels like they're putting their brand value before their business goals and that really lands and feels true,” says Aleksi. 

Even though Aleksi once hated the idea of an advertising career, it’s hard to stop him now. When he and Erno catch up for some beers, they always find themselves making observations about brands and coming up with ideas. They love it. “I think that's the key in our work, when working together feels like something you do in your free time as well, and you're in a good place,” says Aleksi.