Catch up from last week, when I started documenting the Crush x Emmy Fun(d)raising campaign in real-time.
My challenge: to get sponsors for the Crush 2025 event, where 250 rebel leaders will come together for a business conference focused on social sustainability, leadership and business growth.
In the Crush x Emmy campaign, we ask people to donate clothing, we will sell them at Emmy, and the proceeds will go to producing our event.
Good news: Tickets are selling!
The event will be full, and that was never really the challenge.
The challenge was that our ticket prices were calculated trusting that we would get event sponsors. We are not a non-profit, and we are not looking for charity, but we offered an opportunity to connect with a specific group of people.
Let’s talk about our community, or in marketing language: our target audience.
Meet our target audience: powerful women.
We are a community of business people, many of whom are decision-makers, female founders, and international women in Finland. Men follow us too, but the action-takers are definitely women and nonbinary people.
It should be a good target audience from a marketing perspective.
Who wouldn’t want to market to women? Women control over $30 trillion in consumer spending worldwide. Studies estimate that 80-85% of consumer spending is controlled by women.
Everyone knows that women are well-educated in Finland. Many also think there are no barriers for women in business.
Should we highlight the power of women while also mentioning the barriers women still face?
It reflects on the core issue itself, and why we probably have a hard time gaining sponsors too:
- many think we don’t have to work on gender equality in Finland anymore, or
- women in business are not seen as a vital target audience because women in business are not seen to have the same power as men.
Crush Offers a Solution for the National Economy
Yet, we at Crush, and I believe that supporting women in business is one of the best solutions for our national economy.
Don’t take just my word for it.
The latest IMF, International Monetary Fund, report highlights that financial equality in Finland still lags. Women face challenges in accessing credit and achieving pay parity, and it underlines that we need transparent credit practices and targeted support for women-led enterprises.
Women in Finland are more pessimistic than men about their financial future and employment prospects, according to the European Consumer Payment Report 2024 by credit management company Intrum, reports Helsinki Times.
“According to Statistics Finland and the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, there were 47,000 fewer women in employment than a year earlier. The number of employed men fell by a significantly smaller amount, by 8,000,” writes Katja Incoronato in Uusi Suomi.
At the same time, Petri Mäki-Fränti, Senior Economist in the Monetary Policy and Research Department, writes “Finnish service exports have emerged as one of the few bright spots in the economy.” He highlights how we have highly educated people in Finland, and service companies offer potential for economic growth.
The services sector ranges from communications and transport to finance, education and tourism, generates more than two-thirds of global gross domestic product (GDP), and employs more workers than any other sector, according to the World Economic Forum.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) calls it “the backbone of the world economy”, saying that technological advances have made it easier to supply services across borders, opening new opportunities for national economies and individuals.
World Bank-WTO report says that the service sector is the source of most new job creation, especially for young people and women. Women-led firms, particularly those with a remote delivery model, have more success in services.
Join us at Crush to meet numerous founders in the service industry.
Sorry, I got sidetracked showing that we have thought about this a little.
Meet Our New Influencer Marketing Manager: Diana Rantamäki
Meet one of our volunteers who stepped up for the job of boosting the Crush Movement.
Diana Rantamäki might be better known from TikTok, where she has a whopping 6.2M followers, but she is making moves to the business side of social media and influencer marketing. She is currently for a hire, and we have been working together for less than a week, and I am impressed.
Diana started organizing a fundraising event to invite influencers to donate their clothing and accessories as part of the Crush x Emmy campaign.
She started by reaching out to her closest network of influencers, and she scouted top influencers on Instagram.
Within two days, confirmations started rolling in.
What we initially thought would be an intimate gathering of 10 people has now grown into an event featuring 25 Finnish content creators and influencers!
This is HUGE. With their collective voices, this event will help spread awareness for the Crush Movement and its mission.
Just the small fundraising event has grown beyond our expectations, but again: we would love to have partners to make this a success.
We’re Looking for Support With:
✅ A Venue – A space to accommodate 30-40 people (influencers, organizers, and photographers).
✅ Catering Services – Food and beverages for our attendees.
✅ Videographers & Photographers – To capture high-quality event content.
This group of influencers will also be invited as media representatives for Crush 2025, making this an exciting opportunity to connect with them ahead of time.
NOW if ever, would be a very good point to consider sponsoring Crush 2025, and already joining us for the smaller gathering in April with a VERY large social media visibility.
Guess who already joined in? Johanna Rönkkö of Nordic Beauty Inc. Nordic Beauty Inc secured its Crush sponsorship early on, and now they are bringing their Scandy brand as part of the influencer event. Because of the early commitment, now Johanna is getting the bells and whistles.
What we are doing with Crush Movement is something fresh, and exciting, and it is from the community for the community, and it is heartwarming to see so many people volunteering their time for this.
I know that in the long run, we will be fine without external funding and sponsors.
Meanwhile, I would love you to join the movement, as a sponsor or by purchasing the Networking Ticket. This train is going, are you really going to miss this?