Kesko B : Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen at Kesko's Day of Commerce: Maintaining our welfare society requires longer working careers »

KESKO CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE 23.01.2012 AT 15.00 1(2)

About 650 key representatives of trade and industry participated in the Day of Commerce seminar in Helsinki, now organised for the 15th time. The seminar speakers were Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, Managing Director Ritva Hanski-Pitkäkoski of the Association of Finnish Advertisers, Managing Director Esko Kilpi of Esko Kilpi Oy, Group Director, Global Connections Michael Donnelly of The Coca-Cola Company, CEO Jonas Bonnier of Bonnier AB, Reijo Kemppinen, Director-General for Communications, Transparency and Archives in the EU Council, writer Sofi Oksanen, and Kesko's President and CEO Matti Halmesmäki. The theme of the seminar was 'Do your customers hear what you have to say? - Digital era marketing'. 

Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen said in his speech that the sustainability gap of public finances has to be closed. In addition to short-term adjustments, we must be able to correct the structural weaknesses in our society as a long-term response. At the current rate, our income will not be sufficient to cover the costs of a welfare society.

- With regard to the sustainability gap, the key question is the length of Finns' working careers. Maintaining our welfare society requires that we have the capacity and possibility to work longer than today.

Prime Minister Katainen reminded that the Finnish population will be ageing more rapidly than in any other EU member state over the next twenty years or so. Every year from now on, the number of citizens paying taxes on their earned income will decrease and the number of people paying taxes on their pensions will increase. When the pension is substantially smaller than the wages or salary, the amount of taxes paid, i.e. the income of the government and municipalities will fall. In other words, the ageing of population is a big enough challenge for Finland without any external financial crises.

Michael Donnelly, Group Director, Global Connections of Coca-Cola spoke about their "Fans First" approach in social media. He said that Coca-Cola is focused on listening, learning and enabling fans to share their celebrations and creations of their brands in locally relevant ways around the world.

Jonas Bonnier, CEO of Bonnier Group, said in his Day of Commerce speech that the future of the media industry lies in quality journalism and storytelling. Bonnier AB is the owner of MTV Corporation.

Managing Director Hanski-Pitkäkoski elaborated on how to reach "consumers lost in the digital jungle". She spoke about the changes which have taken place in the media market and companies' ability to adopt new social media tools. Leveraging interactive digital media has rapidly become widely adopted and the share of online media in advertising has increased. The advertising barometer published at the Day of Commerce seminar, showed that online media continues to increase its share in Finland. According to global forecasts, it is becoming the second biggest media after television.

The concluding speech at the seminar was given by writer Sofi Oksanen. She said that in order to reach people, you need to touch their hearts. Sofi Oksanen has been the most awarded Finnish writer over the last few years.

Photos of the speakers at the Day of Commerce seminar can be downloaded from: .

Further information: Merja Haverinen, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications and Responsibility, Kesko Corporation, tel. [phone]

) is a retail specialist whose stores offer quality to the daily lives of consumers. Kesko has about 2,000 stores engaged in chain operations in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, and Belarus.