Valve’s expertise in understanding online consumer behaviour and planning, creating and implementing award winning creative solutions played a key role in becoming selected. “Valve assured us with their holistic vision and enthusiasm”, says Joonas Rokka, Project Manager for Valio’s digital solutions department.

“As a strategic partner, we can help ensure the brand’s digital presence drives real business value…” says Miia Wren, Operative Director for Valve. “We believe the era of putting print ads on the internet is finally over. The internet should be thought of as a business environment not just a single channel. Our customers realise this and need the support of dedicated digital experts with in-depth knowledge.”

Valve is finding that Valio’s approach, where clients share their accounts between a digital agency and an advertising agency, is becoming more common. “There have to be clear roles in strategic planning, but I strongly believe that more transparency will lead to greater added value, and both the customer and end users will end up as winners,” says Valve’s Hans Björkendahl, who is responsible for the Valio business.

Building a long-term relationship with one of Finland’s most prestigious brands is in line with Valve’s strategic vision. Valve focuses on developing customers’ digital business potential, with services and communications that meet consumer needs and rapid changes in online environments.

Meanwhile, Valve continues to build its talent pool in the key competence areas of insight, experience, visual, technology and management. Digital specialist, Veera Kauste has joined as a Planner/Strategist. Veera has an extensive background in digital business strategy for major brands, bringing a fresh perspective to the Finnish marketplace after 13 years living in New York City.

Anniina Hautala and Saku Soini have taken the position of Designer, Samuli Nivala is now Graphic Designer and Emma Loikkanen was hired as Junior Graphic Designer. With a focus on servicing Valve’s roster of leading local and international clients, Valve is continuing to develop its strengths and recruit more talent. See the latest opportunities on Valve’s careers pages…

Valve is a very creative environment, including designers and developers working in diverse digital fields. We have a great feel to our working environment, including the private “Valve Café” on the ground floor, and an excellent location in the heart of Helsinki.

Get in touch and find out more if you are interested!

Contact Miia Wren
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Different people from Valve will be contributing everyday. We are encouraging our friends, colleagues and networks to get involved and help spread the word.

Give us your support – become a Facebook fan, follow us on Twitter or get the RSS feed for your favourite reader. Follow our Christmas Stories and share them around – we appreciate all your help, in the virtual world or if you come along and join in…

The red dot design award is the leading and largest design competition worldwide with 12.000 entries from 60 countries. The red dot seal of quality is valued around the world and stands for the best in the design business.

Artek.fi is a bold move for the brand’s internet presence. Artek’s high quality product catalogue is at the heart of the new design concept supported by a stunning selection of interior design showcases. The dynamic and contemporary feel of the site appears to have been achieved using Flash-based technologies. However, Valve’s developers implemented the site with pure CSS and HTML coding. This enabling use of technologies resulted in user experience benefits and excellent search engine optimization.

At the red dot gala on 9th December, Artek.fi will compete for the “best of the best” and “grand prix” prizes, with the elite from the communications design community.

Timo was previously at Satama, Hasan & Partners, and most recently at Taivas as Managing Director. On joining Valve, he said “this was an opportunity I could not miss. As the financial climate accelerates the migration of marketing communications to the internet, Valve has the strategic, technical and creative competence to stand out. The way brands are built and engaged is evolving, new types of agencies are appearing, and consumer behaviour is rapidly changing…” Timo sees preserving and developing Valve’s strategic leadership as key in a market where “so many agencies are entering the field and claiming expertise.”

All at Valve are pleased to welcome Timo on board. You can contact him at timo.julkunen@valve.fi +358 40 549 043

Following the opening words by the event’s host Ville Tolvanen, the morning started with Tuukka Temonen sharing his insight why internet videos should not be treated any different than films produced for other media. Antti Seppänen continued with a presentation of the Staraoke concept as an example how to use multiple media around a concept and Antti Öhrling gave a thorough introduction to social media marketing, using the success story of Blyk as an example.

Our presentation stood in direct continuation of Öhrling’s final thought “Let the customer own your brand”, talking about the complexity of user generated content. Tuomo Sihvola and Sebastian Greger aimed at raising awareness for the fact that each of the conceptual dimensions of UGC (immediacy, public dialogue, customer insight, low participation threshold; to name a few) brings along both possibilities and risks. Our on-stage dialogue - which thankfully evolved into extensive discussions with the audience - ended with a list of six rules we identify to be crucial when acting in the field of social media in general, and UGC in particular. We will elaborate further on these topics in a later blog post.

After the lunch break, Marco Mäkinen showed how established and emerging marketing strategies should be combined for success. He was followed by three case studies, Nina Venäläinen presenting Nokia’s social media launch strategy for the N97, Minna Lenander showcasing valio.fi’s online TV and Risto Vuorensola sheding light on the “Satellite bicycle” viral videos YLE launched last autumn. The two final talks were by Per Kristian Tandberg, on targeting as a means of cost-effective digital marketing, and Kim Weckström, about digital customer care.

In the closing panel discussion, Heikki Rotko, Kari Kivelä, Roope Lehtinen and Reetta Meriläinen discussed with the audience about ongoing changes in the media and how the established media can keep up with the user-driven trend away from the traditional forms of media.

This has been a great day, with a well-selected balance between insight derived from hands-on experience and very concrete case examples. Having enjoyed the numerous discussions with both seminar participants and the other speakers, we are happy to have been the partner in this event and took home a load of new thoughts to digest and take further.

Valve congratulates the Federation of the Brewing and Soft Drinks Industry!

The winners are announced on 19th of March in the Grand One Gala in restaurant Apollo, Helsinki.

Designing in process.

Implementation, team Jungle Heat.

Team Arabian Nights building interior to the tent.

Die Western Lounge under construction.

Presenting the prominent beer dispenser of Die Western Lounge.

Taking a peek to the Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau (note the periscope on the left next to the sea lion!)

Arabian Nigts full heat.

iBooth in active use straight away.

Coffin Shop has also been awarded in Eurobest and Epica as well as in Vuoden Huiput.

The winners represent less than 2 percent of total entries and were chosen by Cresta’s International Grand Jury. The Cresta Awards were launched in 1993 and the competition has grown to be one of the most valued ones in the field of advertising.

In addition, Valve and Hasan & Partners are shortlisted in the Golden Drum -competetion for Coffin Shop.

At the Helsinki Design Week Open Studio evening, everybody is welcome to take a peek inside offices, studios, workshops and other creative spaces.

Valve’s office is open, and we warmly invite everyone to visit, meet our people, and take a look at some of our latest work. We’ll be offering some small tasty tidbits and drinks.

Open Studios on Wednesday 1st of October from 5pm to 8 pm right here at Pieni Roobertinkatu 7.

Welcome!

Drunk you’re fool was also shortlisted at the Moscow International Advertising Festival.

I’ve always found it odd that Apple didnt’ include a decent Feed reader app on the iPhone to begin with, so I decided to create my own. I really enjoyed getting to know Objective-C and using all of Apple’s development tools

comments Tuomas.

AppStore is Apple’s web store for iPhone applications. The store holds approx 1700 applications at the moment and already the store has sold applications worth of 30 million US dollars (20,4 million euros).

The Web Feeds app is available on the iTunes AppStore under the “News” category for 2,99 euros. Try it out!

He talks about his new position with enthusiasm:

It’s great to start at Valve which is not only known for it’s strong ideas but also as an agency that is an active and eager developer of the digital community.

Hyytiäinen has influenced the best digital agencies in Finland: To the Point, Grey Interactive, Ego and now Valve.

Valve warmly welcomes P-J!

A total of 285 finalists were chosen to the final which represents six percent of the total number of entries.

View the finalists here.

The 16th annual award ceremony will be presented online on Monday, October 24th.

]]> http://blogs.valve.fi/index.php/2008/08/04/valve-to-2008-cresta-awards-final-with-three-entries/feed/ http://blogs.valve.fi/index.php/2008/07/04/valve-celebrated-in-webby-awards/ http://blogs.valve.fi/index.php/2008/07/04/valve-celebrated-in-webby-awards/#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:02:17 +0000 kaisa http://blogs.valve.fi/?p=62 Karen Forsström, Toni Laturi and Jussi Niemi from Valve and Paula Morri from UPM celebrated in the Webby Awards gala in New York. The team received the Webby Award for UMP Forest Life in the Corporate Communications category. Known as the “Web Oscar”, the Webby Award is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. With nearly 10,000 entries from more than 60 countries worldwide, the 12th Annual Webby Awards was the biggest in its history.

The atmosphere in the Webby Awards gala was glamorous in the heart of Wallstreet, but at the same time very relaxed

describes Karen Forsström, Valve’s Project Manager and continues:

The best of the best celebrated together with the feeling of mutual respect for each other’s achievements. Most of the works presented were a testament to usability and functionality and others we´re just simply enjoyable. It´s exhilarating to see the salute of originality and be a part of it. As our AD Jussi Niemi noted: “We´ve got to come back here next year!” To be selected among the best is an incredible achievement worthy of praise – and worth bragging about ; )

Valve was the first ever Finnish company over 12 year history of Webby Awards to win a Webby Award. UPM Forest Life has been recognized and awarded also in other respected competitions such as Epica, Cannes Lions, LIA and Grand One.

The gala is famous for it’s 5-word acceptance speeches that stole the show also this year. See the speeches here.

To quote David-Michel Davies, the Executive Director of Webby Awards:

With nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 US states and over 60 countries worldwide, the 12th Annual Webby Awards is the biggest in our history and continues to be the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Your work truly represents the best of the Web.

The 12th Annual Webby Awards are celebrated on June 8th-10th in New York City.