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When the going gets tough the tough get going

NTRNZ media Ltd has acquired the business of Luova toimisto Ranka and opens Helsinki office

Award-winning creative house NTRNZ media Ltd has strengthened its strategic competence by acquiring the business of Luova toimisto Ranka Ltd. Both companies are based in Oulu, Northern Finland. The company is also about to spread its operations to the capital area as its new office opens in Helsinki in May.

In connection with the acquisition, Ranka CEO Juhani Parhiala starts as the Head of Strategy at NTRNZ media. In March, the NTRNZ media team was strengthened by Creative Director Pia Grekula, with background and experience from agencies like Bob the Robot and TBWA.

It’s time to blow up the traditional way we think about content production and marketing. We’re building a completely new type of creative agency, that does not fit into any known pattern or business model. This way, we’re able to serve our customers in the best way possible and create bigger, higher-quality content entities.

Founder and Executive Creative Director Teemu Hostikka

The business acquisition combines the core competencies of two Northern Finnish companies: powerful visuality, meaningful content production and strategic planning. The team thinks that it’s about time customers wake up and invest in new, innovative ideas. 

In this difficult time when people, companies and society are looking for a direction, we need someone to lead the way. I’ve never been comfortable with the ad industry business logic. With NTRNZ media, we decided to take a big step and form a team that has the means to change the industry’s logic as a whole. This team is able to deliver new type of productions that exceed any international quality standard and that are intellectually sustainable and profitable. And we will.

Director of Strategy Juhani Parhiala

NTRNZ Helsinki – a foothold in the Capital area

NTRNZ media opens an office in the Finnish Capital Helsinki at the beginning of May. The new unit is lead by Creative Director Pia Grekula, who has won dozens of prestigious advertising awards. Her latest projects include the ”Long Shot” campaign for Hartwall, directed by Renny Harlin, and the most visible campaigns of recent years for VR and Stockmann, for example.

To me, NTRNZ media’s content and format know-how is a truly differentiating factor. Traditional production companies do not offer ad agency services, and on the other hand, a traditional ad agency does not have know-how in formats. NTRNZ’s extensive experience of both as well as their international merits open up the possibility to create completely new content formats for our advertising agency customers as well.

Creative Director Pia Grekula

NTRNZ media is a creative house that has won the Finnish Television Academy Golden Venla award three times. The company’s series are distributed globally and it has multiple ongoing international productions and collaboration agreements with prominent international TV and film distribution companies.

I’m proud to lead a company that under one roof, combines online stores, visuality and cross-media concepts into seamless entities, and takes a bold step forward in this challenging situation.

CEO Hanna Mustonen

More information:

Teemu Hostikka
+358 45 639 8664

Juhani Parhiala
+358 50 343 4967

Pia Grekula
+358 50 361 9660

Hanna Mustonen
+358 45 634 3073

Photos

NTRNZ media is an award-winning creative house specialised in content production and marketing. The company is best known for the tv series Eränkävijät (Love of the Wild), as well as being the marketing partner of many known brands such as Visit Kalajoki, Oulun Kärpät Hockey Team, Northern Finland’s biggest festival Qstock, Europcar, Biltema, Bittium and the University of Oulu. 

Luova toimisto Ranka, founded in 2014, is a creative agency focused on marketing strategies and ad agency services. Its customers include student housing association Pohjois-Suomen opiskelija-asuntosäätiö, Pudasjärvi Development Ltd and Visit Oulu. 

Eränkävijät (Love of the Wild) wins third Golden Venla award

Finnish Television Academy recognises the popular series

Eränkävijät (Love of the Wild, original Finnish series) was awarded its third Golden Venla at the Finnish Television Academy’s annual Venla Gala on January 17th, 2020. This time, the series was chosen as the Best Lifestyle Program of 2019. Earlier, Eränkävijät has won the Best TV Program 2017 and Best Performer 2018 awards, by popular vote. The Best Lifestyle Program is chosen by the Television Academy’s professional jury.

Eränkävijät premiered on YLE TV1 in 2016. The fourth season aired in the autumn of 2019, followed by Love of the Wild – From the Alps to the Arctic, an international version of the series that follows nature lifestyle in five European countries. The fifth season of the Finnish original series premieres in the autumn of 2020, and a second season of the international series is in production.

NTRNZ media launches international war documentary series with four Nordic broadcasting companies

”Untold Arctic Wars” is a series about the least known battles of World War II

Award-winning production house NTRNZ media has started the production of a new, six-part documentary series about battles in the Arctic areas during the second World War. Distribution rights have already been sold to Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Filming begins in summer 2020 and takes place in Finland and Europe, as well as North America.

The battles in the Arctic areas have never been covered on this scale. The general public has not known about the impact they had on world history. I also think it’s important to remind people about the most violent war in human history so that history will never repeat itself.

Executive producer Teemu Hostikka

The series is written by the renowned Finnish war author Mika Kulju and respected Swedish war historian, Lars Gyllenhaal. Both have written several books about battles in the northern areas. The series is narrated by actor Peter Franzén.

World War Two was more Arctic than most people are aware of. The Arctic is getting more and more important, not least because of climate change. Thus the amazing operations that took place up here are both exciting and important to learn about.

Lars Gyllenhaal

Several battlefields in the Arctic areas have remained almost untouched. The series gives new, international perspectives to the battles that took place in Finland – such as the Raate road battle – and gives the viewer an opportunity to travel through time, into history.

Mika Kulju

The ambitious documentary series has already evoked international attention. In Finland, the series is broadcasted by the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle.

This is a very significant project. In addition to high-quality drama series, international streaming services are investing in documentary series. To respond to this challenge we need series with many different partners and investors. This one is backed by all the broadcasting companies in the Nordics, except Iceland. The quality must, of course, be high, and NTRNZ has already proven its ability to produce international quality. 

Ari Ylä-Anttila,  Commissioner, Yle

The production is expected to be completed at the end of 2021.

NTRNZ media is a creative house specialised in content production and marketing. One of our core values is respect for pure Northern nature. NTRNZ media is best known for the tv series Eränkävijät (Love of the Wild), as well as being the marketing partner of many Northern Finnish tourism operators and known brands, such as the Oulun Kärpät Hockey Team and the biggest rock festival in northern Finland, Qstock. 

Mika Kulju is an expert in Northern Finland’s war history. He has written 25 nonfiction books, 10 of which deal with northern war history. His latest book about the Winter war in Lapland (Kaksintaistelu lumessa – Lapin talvisota 1939) was published by Gummerus in 2019.

Lars Gyllenhaal is a Swedish author who writes about military history and in particular, about Swedish involvement in the wars of the 20th century. 

Press photos

More information:

Teemu Hostikka
NTRNZ media Oy
+358 45 639 8664

Ari Ylä-Anttila
Yle
+358 40 5034549