Ilkka Vanala Email & Phone Number

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Fi

Group CEO at IF Gnistan. Managing IF Gnistan Oy (men's and women's first teams) and Oulunkylän Tekonurmi Oy (stadium & training centre) and IF Gnistan ry (non-profit & grassroots).

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Fi

Managing Elisa's Brand, Content Creation, and Marketing Activation covering Sponsorships and Events.- Elisa's Brand renewal in 2022-2023 and development & implementation of Elisa Brand Hub (see: https://brand.elisa.fi )- The second strongest Nordic brand in 2023 based on Brand Finance's annual report on the most valuable and strongest Nordic brands (brand value up 14% to EUR1.4 billion, see: https://brandirectory.com/rankings/nordic/ ).-The most Sustainable Brand in the Finnish Telecommunications Industry based on the Sustainable Brand Index 2023 (see: https://www.sb-index.com/finland)- SPOT finalist with Elisa's Fans sponsorship activation in 2023 (see: https://www.spot.fi/case/elisan-fanit-laukoivat-taysosumat-sponsoroinnille)

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Fi

Acting Head of Marketing for Elisa Entertainment Business.-Transferring Elisa Original Series to Ruutu+ service and launch of the collaboration- Marketing Management for Elisa TV and book services, development and implementation of the new marcom concept, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swgl0OPkESo

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Fi

Managing and developing Elisa's Consumer Marketing Communications and Corporate Marketing.Member of Elisa's Communications and Corporate Business Management Teams.Some B2C highlights:- Last episodes of award-winning Saarnaajat marketing concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNjLYUVT82Y- Creation of the new marketing concept, Elisa’s Fans: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoYgvGiwgZk4AzpS7I-WpDcjFpJQS7vOnProcess owner of Elisa's marketing core processes.

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Fi

Worked with Kepit Systems (https://www.linkedin.com/company/kepit-systems-oy/) to grow their business internationally with selected customers and partners in Europe.Managed Fanseat.com business to open new markets and grow the business in existing ones untilthe business was sold to Spring Media.Analysed and evaluated new business and partnership opportunities in the international digital services and entertainment business Globally.

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Fi

Founder and Head of Fanseat Business (www.fanseat.com), a Digital Sports Entertainment Startup at Elisa’s New Business Development Business Unit widening the successful Sport Entertainment Business from Finland to international audiences.Moving form the biggest producer of sports content in Finland to an international provider of professionally but cost-effective produced sports content.Global customer & fan-base covering partnerships and content from Albania, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and multiple sporting events from various European countries and USA.

Helsinki, Uusimaa, Fi

Built and developed successfully full Sports Entertainment Business for Elisa Viihde Finland.-> Reversed the traditional Sports rights acquisition strategy from the "Premium First" to "2nd/3rd tier First" by building the Sports offering on nationally interesting and globally emerging sports.-> Became the largest producer of live sport events in Finland in one year covering widely Finnish ice hockey, basketball, floorball and football leagues and matches.-> Pioneered the implementation of crowdsourcing to match productions, commentaries and promotion, enabling large scale cost savings and revenue share to the leagues and teams.-> Had a pleasure to work with highly professional and innovative tech people, partners and subcontractors , who developed revolutionary solutions for creating, delivering and distributing live sports content to fans to watch, no matter where they are. Operational management of Elisa's Entertaining (Elisa Viihde) OTT business in Finland in 2015.

Espoo, Uusimaa, Fi

Fundraising, Marketing and Communications for a grassroots football club with 900+ members. Volunteer work.Some highlights from 2017-2022:- Number of licensed players from 700- to 900+.- Club pro-coaching staff from 2 to 8.- Co-op agreement with FC Honka (Premier League Club in Finland).- Launch of Club's grassroots program to support immigrants integration to the Finnish society through footbal and EsPa.- CRM and MarCom development through implementation of MyClub and digital marketing & SEM activation.

Founder of Fanimo Oy, a commercial subsidiary of the Football Association for managing and developing online and retail sales and marketing of the official fan merchandise of Finnish National teams.

Nyon, Ch

While being employed by Football Association of Finland, had a consultancy assignments from UEFA (www.UEFA.com) to facilitate European marketing workshops and support other Associations in strategy work and business & marketing development activities.- Some facilitated projects being Marketing Strategy for the Dutch Football Association and Pricing Strategy for the Danish Football Association.

Helsinki, Fi

Managed the sales and marketing of the Football Association of Finland with P&L responsibility.Key achievements:- Creation of Digital Marketing Strategy and Building up Social Media presence (Facebook and Twitter) for National teams.- Brand strategy creation and implementation for the Finnish National teams.- Change from single match/event marketing to marketing theme campaigns.- Successful renewal of ticketing (pricing) strategy and reporting with over 20% consumer sales increase.- Significant growth in national team match attendance figures.- Highly improved sponsorship activation and partnerships development, including many CSR projects.- Development and total renewal of the streaming platform (huuhkaja.tv) for National teams and Association.- Worked as a Marketing Expert for UEFA (www.UEFA.com) to facilitate European marketing workshops and support other Associations in strategy work and business & marketing development activities.

Managed the sales and marketing of FC TPS football club, focusing especially on strategy creation, brand building and development of consumer sales and customer loyalty & engagement.- Consumer sales increased by ~40% in 2009, the average # of spectators increased by 10%, being #1 in Finland.

Espoo, Southern Finland, Fi

The Global Program Manager for Nokia Premium Partner program, reporting to SVP Nokia Branded Retail and VP Nokia General Retail and Channel Management. A member of the Nokia Branded Retail Global Management team.

Espoo, Southern Finland, Fi

A member of the team of business professionals that developed Nokia Multimedia Europe from a loss-making unit to the most profitable business at Nokia between 2004 and 2007.- Developed and implemented sales channel & marketing strategy for first imaging devices (phones with a camera) in EMEA with heavy emphasize on Go-To-Market management. - Conceptualized and implemented Nokia’s new branding and a sub-category (Nseries) to retail. New Sub-category implemented to 2000+ TCS, CES, MM and operator stores in Europe, where sales was increased by 50-200% / shop.

Espoo, Southern Finland, Fi

Espoo, Southern Finland, Fi

Bad Zurzach, Ch

Helsinki, Southern Finland, Fi

Part-time job on sport department during studies.

Helsinki, Fi

Military Rank: 2nd Lieutenant (Reserve).

Diploma Of Advanced Studies (Das) – Football And Sports Marketing And Communications

Storewars

Bachelor Of Business Administration - Bba