Nallikari
Everything you can expect from a holiday – enjoy life by the sea all year round.
The client
Nallikari Seaside Oy is a tourism company from Oulu located in the Nallikari area. Nallikari is a public recreation area in Hietasaari, Oulu, about three kilometers from the city center. Nallikari is famous for its kilometer-long sandy beach, the Riviera of the North. At the end of the beach is the famous Nallikari lighthouse, which has been seen by thousands worldwide – at least as a Windows 10 screensaver. A visit to Nallikari is an absolute highlight of a visit to Oulu, and even for the locals, cycling along the archipelago route from the center to Nallikari is a must-do summer activity.
Nallikari Seaside’s accommodation capacity includes cozy holiday cottages, wonderful island villas, and a camping area. New beach apartments are also being built in the area, they will be completed in the spring of 2024. Nallikari Seaside maintains a comprehensive service offering in the area in cooperation with other operators.
The challenge
For decades, Nallikari has been a recreation and tourism area for Oulu residents and international visitors alike, and the site will continue to be an essential destination for the Oulu region in the future. A lot of investments will be made in Nallikari, Mustasaari, and Hietasaari in the next few years. Visit Oulu will promote the area’s attractiveness in cooperation with the city and the operators of the entire region. Nallikari Seaside also invests significantly in building new accommodation and commercial space capacity, expanding its business, and developing its business model simultaneously.
The development work raised the need for the renewal of Nallikari’s brand and website – the goal was not only to communicate the development but also to strengthen Nallikari Holiday Village’s position as a developer and critical player in the area and to provide the company with information and understanding for further development work.
The project was launched according to Republic’s co-design model at joint workshops in Oulu’s Nallikari. We were considering a new direction by, among other things, looking at whether Nallikari is the leading holiday destination or a stopover when coming north, whether we sell accommodation capacity as a holiday village or offer more holiday experiences, whether service and services can stand out, and whether the repositioning will change people’s image of Nallikari.
Through the cooperation, it became clear to us that there was a strategic choice ahead of us as to which one Nallikari wants to be in the future: a full-service holiday village whose recognition and growth are defined primarily through the current target groups and price category, or a unique target destination for leisure time and an innovator of holiday solutions, which also aims for attractiveness in the international market.
The solution
Together, we decided to boldly reposition Nallikari from a holiday village and provider of accommodation capacity to a developer of the entire area. This was seen as a natural continuation, as Nallikari Seaside has already done an excellent job for decades as a developer of the area’s attractiveness. Nallikari is an integral part of Oulu and important to the people of Oulu, and Nallikari’s key player must be a company that knows and understands the area. A successful Nallikari brand can only be formed when the people of Oulu are proud of Nallikari. The vision of Oulu’s Nallikari as Finland’s most exciting area by the sea in 2026 was born.
The vision led to the brand concept Meren äärellä/By the Sea, which operates year-round and utilizes the most significant attraction factor of the entire area, i.e., the proximity and presence of the sea. It not only communicates about the holiday village but, in line with the goal, about the entire Nallikari area. This also aims to tackle the perceived recognition challenge: many people do not know how to place Nallikari on the map, even if they have heard about it. The sea brings much-needed light and evokes positive images of nature and landscapes. The customers are promised, “Nallikari will surprise you every time and every moment. Throughout the year. We promise it because we’re telling you this by the sea”.
In support of the brand renewal, we created a comprehensive brand book, which includes, in addition to the strategy, the tonality of the new By the Sea concept, visuals such as typography, color, and image world, icon library, graphic elements, and examples of these. Republic also helped Nallikari with various announcements and productions related to the reforms.
At the end of 2022, we gathered together again in Nallikari, where we focused on shaping the operational model of business cooperation in the area with the regional actors. Nallikari is a central destination in the tourism strategy of the Oulu region, and the operators of the area must commit to a joint game for the development of the site. Based on the co-design workshops, Game Book was born, which gathers the common will of the region’s operators between one cover and defines the Nallikari way of managing the employee and customer experience.
The results
The strategy and brand created for Nallikari Seaside and the corresponding new website successfully embody the new will and story of the entire Nallikari area. The purpose is that operators will cooperate more closely than before to ensure a consistent and memorable Nallikari experience for customers, increasing customer loyalty and destination recommendations. It is also possible to rebuild the pricing.
The meaning
With the new strategy and brand, Nallikari will develop even more as an inspiring and attractive year-round meeting place for tourists, locals, and partners, as well as an experience oasis with better opportunities to arouse interest internationally. Nallikari’s brand story tells the reader how authentic and unique Nallikari is – for anyone who wants to enjoy life on vacation, on a day trip, on a business trip, or, for example, while on a bike ride in the evening.
