On September 29 Point Estonia organised a presentation for Finnish business organisations in the Estonian Embassy in Helsinki. In addition to marketing firms, the speakers included Valdar Liive from the Helsinki office of Enterprise Estonia, Juhani Seilenthal from investment firm Baltic Mezzanine, and Kristi Karelsohn, the First Secretary of Economic and Trade Affairs of the Estonian Embassy. Nearly 50 people attended.

Erika Saks from the advertising agency Pult says that Point Estonia solves customers’ problems in an integrated manner, because the selection of marketing opportunities offered is ample. “Point Estonia has selected the Finnish market as its first destination where various events will be organised with the support of Enterprise Estonia. Our aim is to make Estonia once again an exciting and open target destination where entrepreneurs want to come to offer their products and services and make our trade and small world bigger.”

Valdar Liive, the head of the Finnish operations of Enterprise Estonia, finds that the time is again right for Finnish entrepreneurs to come to Estonia. This would be their fourth coming following the invasions in the 1990s and accession to the European Union. “There are certainly enterprises in Estonia worthy of investing in, buying or merging with the existing operations. And the business climate of our country remains favourable. The plan of Mika Salo, a former Formula 1 start, to invest in Estonia has received a lot of attention in the Estonian and Finnish media.” According to Finnish business organisation Finpro, 4,108 Finnish enterprises operated in Estonia in 2008.

In the spring of 2009 the newsletter of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced the joint marketing assistance provided by Enterprise Estonia. Public relations company In Nomine had long thought that foreign entrepreneurs establishing themselves in Estonia need a reliable place where to get marketing support in the broadest sense of the term. First, they decided to test in on their Nordic neighbours. In the partner hunt Pult, an appealing advertising agency qualified right away, followed by Altex Marketing, an evangelist of online marketing, and Media House, a media sales giant. Thus, the marketing venture comprising PR, advertising, online marketing and media sales was created. In Finnish matters Bruno Lill from Baltileo became our consultant.

The team selected Point Estonia from among many possible name options. Communication agency Pilgrim and the Markkinointi ja Mainonta marketing publication of the Talentum Group became our Finnish partners. Also, the Estonian embassy in Finland and Valdar Liive, Enterprise Estonia’s representative to Finland, were ready to help. We submitted an application for assistance to Enterprise Estonia and it was approved. The hunt for Finnish entrepreneurs could begin.