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Mediateko’s strengths include its Finnishness, accountability and agility

5.9.2024

Outdoor advertising company Mediateko is interested in pursuing growth and profitability, but not at any cost. The company fulfils its responsibilities innovatively and takes good care of its employees. Its hometown Kuopio is important to the company – achieving success on its home turf has boosted the company’s confidence in other markets as well.

Mediateko was born when its founder and now Director of Partnerships Teemu Kontkanen decided to secure a good job for himself by buying another company’s outdoor advertising contracts with ski resorts 15 years ago. He set out to develop media sales for them and to grow the ski resort network. Business gradually expanded to include golf resorts, parking garages and a nation-wide advertising network on railway stations. One of the key steps to success was winning a competitive tender published by the city of Kuopio concerning outdoor advertising spaces and their digitalization.

“Our home turf has been extremely important for us – the key to our success. Our references for projects completed in Kuopio have driven us forward in other places as well. For example, we installed our largest, 73-square-metre LED display on the wall of Novapolis, which lent credibility to our technological capabilities,” says Mediateko’s CEO Sampsa Savolainen.

Media displays as a superpower

After the first few years, Mediateko has grown at an extraordinary pace. Today, it is the third-biggest outdoor advertising company in Finland. Its turnover is 8.5 million euros and it has a staff of more than 20 people. The company has an ambitious goal to increase its turnover to 20 million euros within the next five years.

Although Mediateko hopes to continue growing, it is not pursuing growth at any cost. It also wants to conduct business accountably and be one of the “good guys”. Recently, Mediateko became the first Nordic media company to achieve the B Corp Certification, reflecting its commitment to accountability.

“It is a fundamental principle for us to fulfil our environmental responsibilities and do things responsibly as individuals, but on top of that, we also have 500 digital surfaces across Finland, which we think of as our superpower. They allow us to reach more than one million Finns every week. We use this superpower to encourage citizens and decision-makers to act more responsibly,” explains Savolainen.

Mediateko rewards “responsibility goodies” with slightly better terms and conditions and a better partnership. It also supports small companies that act responsibly by giving them free advertising time.

National media company

Kontkanen and Savolainen like to talk about dreams. There is no actual strategy or plan of action for venturing beyond the domestic market, but this is something that the men dream about. The right path could lie in the skills and knowledge that the company already possesses and taking these abroad.

“But for now, we still have potential to grow in Finland as well. Our other dream is actually to become the market leader in outdoor advertising in Finland. This will require a lot of hard work, as we are up against global players like Clear Channel and JCDecaux. Our strengths against them include our Finnishness, accountability and business agility,” says Savolainen.

Mediateko has already stood up to the outdoor advertising giants; three years ago, it won the competitive tender of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency concerning advertising surfaces at all the railway stations in Finland. This transformed Mediateko into a major national media company and opened the doors to all media agencies and the largest national advertisers.

“If we hadn’t won the contract with the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, our growth would have stalled. But instead, we doubled our turnover in three years. Our success in the competitive tender also reinforced our belief that we are a serious player and people believe in us. We have the potential to do anything,” says Savolainen.

Drive ideas forward persistently

Mediateko strives to do things from the heart and build a Mediateko family around the company. This family is made up not only of the employees, but also customers and partners. The community is extremely strong. Employee commitment has also been strengthened by offering employees the possibility of becoming a shareholder in the company. Kontkanen still holds the largest share of ownership, but there are already seven small shareholders.

“We wanted to ensure the commitment of core employees so that our key people do not leave us and that things move forward in the long run. Lately, we have made more room for reason alongside emotion and focused on our strategy work, planning our approach and our partnership agreements,” says Savolainen.

Mediateko is supported by a strong professional board of directors. Cooperation with the board is based on the courage to ask for help, discussing any issues together and taking action on the basis of these discussions. Savolainen recommends a similar approach to other companies as well. Ideas should be driven forward boldly and persistently and people should be committed to the chosen strategy.

“You should start by building a strong board that supports and understands you as an entrepreneur and helps you to see the bigger picture so that your days are not spent fumbling around. Sharing responsibility and trusting other people is also essential. There is no point in putting everything on one person’s plate. At Mediateko, our decision-making and innovation processes are distributed across the company,” says Savolainen.

He also urges companies to have confidence in the fact that they do not need to remain a regional player, but there is often demand for similar things in other markets.

Mediateko’s website

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Kuopio is a safe playground for businesses

Kuopio has been an enabler and a cornerstone, a place where outdoor advertising company Mediateko has been able to learn new things and also share this knowledge with others. According to CEO Sampsa Savolainen, in Kuopio you will get candid and frank feedback on what you do, while being surrounded by reliable relationships and good people.

“We don’t need to be afraid of trying new things in Kuopio. It’s a safe playground for us to do business. We at Mediateko believe that our Kuopio and Savo roots also give us a competitive edge. They help us stand out from other companies in the same field.”

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Text: Minna Akiola
Photos: Mediateko