Helsinki Partners

Helsinki Partners set out to renew Helsinki's international digital presence through MyHelsinki 2.0, a platform designed to better serve global audiences interested in visiting, relocating to, or investing in Helsinki. The existing site struggled to deliver an inspiring, personalized user experience and failed to support multichannel journeys or content scalability.

The goal was ambitious: transform the site into a global onboarding platform that reflects Helsinki’s unique values as a welcoming, bold, and sustainable city, while serving international visitors, talent, and investors with equal, personalized relevance.

To bring MyHelsinki 2.0 to life, Futurice and the Futurice Family company Columbia Road collaborated closely with Helsinki Partners in a multi-phase process that combined strategy, service design, technical implementation, and continuous maintenance by our managed services. From the start, our shared objective was to create a future-proof digital platform that consolidates the city of Helsinki's international-facing digital presence into a single, coherent service that serves multiple user groups without becoming generic.

We began with a deep discovery phase to understand the needs of four key audiences: international visitors, talent, investors, and locals. Through workshops, interviews, and collaborative user journey mapping, we helped Helsinki Partners redefine the platform’s role — not just as a website, but as a digital onboarding experience for the city. This insight became the foundation for a new value proposition and concept focused on inspiration, emotional connection, and practical guidance.

We developed rich example user stories and defined core design principles based on personalization, editorial clarity, and content modularity. Our team facilitated the creation of a prototype and mapped content architecture using flexible “building blocks”: local stories, interest-based content curation, interactive maps, GenAI-powered assistance, and thematic deep dives into sustainability, culture, and business.

On the technical side, we led a platform selection process to evaluate CMS options against long-term maintainability, usability, and cost efficiency. WordPress was recommended as the most viable option, balancing flexibility with ease of publishing, a wide vendor ecosystem, and seamless CRM integration. Throughout, we kept editorial workflows, multichannel transitions, and internal resource optimization at the heart of the service model, enabling the future consolidation of operations across previously separate teams and sites.

Working alongside Futurice, Columbia Road led the WordPress implementation and applied its martech expertise to optimize user acquisition through SEO, analytics, and performance tracking. The platform is now supported by Columbia Road’s CR Care team, ensuring continuous improvement and long-term operational stability.

MyHelsinki 2.0 is more than a redesign — it’s a strategic rethinking of Helsinki’s global digital presence. It delivers on three key ambitions:

• Designing and delivering a future-ready digital platform from concept and design to implementation and continuous development
• Unifying international marketing for all target groups under one platform
• Clarifying the service’s role while streamlining internal operations

With a high volume of diverse users spanning visitors, talent, and business audiences, the new platform acts as a confident, welcoming entry point into the city. It inspires action whether someone is planning a visit, exploring a career move, or evaluating business opportunities. With modular, multilingual, and interest-based content, the experience adapts to diverse needs without fragmentation.

For Helsinki Partners, MyHelsinki 2.0 simplifies and strengthens international marketing by consolidating previously siloed services. One platform now supports multiple funnels and user journeys, helping reduce duplication and align messaging. Editorial workflows are streamlined through WordPress, while integrations with CRM and analytics tools support measurable, multichannel engagement.

At the city level, this project contributes to Helsinki’s broader mission of sustainable growth. It boosts Helsinki’s international brand, helps attract the right people and investment, and supports key metrics such as job creation, business leads, and international reach. Most importantly, the service is designed to evolve, with a flexible tech stack and content model that supports continuous iteration and reuse, making it a smart long-term investment for both the city and its partners.

About the client

Helsinki Partners is a city-owned marketing and invest-in company, tasked with promoting Helsinki’s sustainable growth, the acquisition of investments, businesses, professionals and visitors, the City’s international sales and marketing, and the building of Helsinki’s international brand. Fast, creative, and impactful, we’re an agile, customer-focused organisation driving Helsinki’s future on the world stage.