Best use cases of 2025

In 2025, a number of campaigns and initiatives helped carry Estonia’s story to new audiences and show who we are a little more clearly. These moments highlighted the things Estonia does well — from digital services and education to culture, food and innovation — and reflected the principles that guide us.

For Estonia, every chance to share our story matters. Each campaign, initiative and event raised awareness and supported the everyday work of our diplomats, founders, creators and partners. Together, these efforts helped keep Estonia visible, understandable and trusted in a world that continues to change quickly.

At the end of 2024, Estonia became the first country in the world to offer all government services online. With a minimal media budget, e-Estonia Briefing Center turned this achievement into a clear and memorable global story about simple, modern governance. The campaign brought a lot of attention to Estonia through international PR push supported by an interactive test inviting people to compare their own country’s bureaucracy with Estonia’s.

Impact: A €7,000 spend turned into €13.4 million in earned media, reaching 2.26 billion people in 35 countries. Nearly 1,000 stories covered the campaign, delivering a 2.6 million percent ROI. Total budget under €30,000.

New ID & e-Residency card designs

Late 2025, the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board introduced a new design for ID cards, residence permit cards, e-resident digital IDs and diplomatic identity cards. The design drew inspiration from Estonia’s nature and incorporated elements of Brand Estonia design system. While the previous passport redesign focused on animals, the new cards highlighted birds and insects. Developed in collaboration with Brand Estonia team, the cards featured swallows, bees, shimmering water and cattails. The field motif on the back was composed of small icons such as a hare, tractor, grain and bee, and the design is complemented by beautiful Estonian phrases like “vesi sillerdas hilisõhtuses päikesekumas", "taevas sõudsid hõbehallid udupehmed pilvepallid", "mesimumm lendas sumisedes ringi”. The diplomatic ID card featured the majestic Ural owl, and the e-resident digital ID showcased Estonia’s national bird, the barn swallow.

In 2025, Trade Estonia ran a targeted campaign in India to raise awareness of our food and beverage sector in a large and fast-growing market. The goal was to present Estonia as a reliable source of clean, high-quality products and to open new opportunities for exporters. The campaign used locally relevant storytelling to explain Estonia’s strengths in a way that made sense for Indian consumers.

Impact: The digital rollout delivered strong results: more than 10.5 million impressions and over 70,000 clicks in few weeks in key regions such as Delhi and Mumbai.

In 2024 and 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expanded Estonia’s global business diplomacy by opening new business hubs at embassies in key markets. These hubs provide Estonian companies with a trusted, state-backed environment for meeting partners, showcasing their solutions and entering new markets. To support their work, Brand Estonia has created tailored marketing materials that help the hubs present Estonia’s success stories and highlight our smart, forward-looking solutions to international audiences.

In May 2025, Tallinn brought a taste of modern Estonian culture to Stockholm’s Södermalm. The festival showcased sustainable food, live music, design, crafts and sauna culture, giving visitors a fresh look at Tallinn’s creative energy. The event welcomed more than 2,500 people and strengthened Estonia’s visibility in Sweden.

Impact: 1.2M media reach, 3.2M impressions and 16,600 social media engagements.

Life in Estonia magazine continued to share Estonia’s story with global readers. The 2025 issue was published both digitally and in print, with 4,000 copies delivered to embassies around the world in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. The magazine supports tourism, e-Residency, trade, investment and Estonia’s cultural and educational outreach. This year’s edition focused on defence and security innovation.

Estonia’s flagship tech conference Latitude59

Latitude59 took place in May 2025 in Tallinn, bringing together more than 3,500 participants from over 70 countries. Estonia introduced a full LED sustainable country stand showcasing tech success stories, brand messages and Estonia’s sub-brands. The conference highlighted defence and deep-tech innovations and strengthened Estonia’s position as a place where new ideas work in practice.

Estonia and Finland joined forces in 2025 to celebrate sauna culture with a Guinness World Record attempt: “Most photos of people in a sauna uploaded to Facebook in one hour.” The idea was simple: a way to show the deeper meaning of sauna in our wellbeing tradition and stand out in the fast-growing wellness tourism market. The activation inspired people from 47 countries to participate, generated more than 4,500 posts and 24,000 reactions, and resulted in over 100 news stories worldwide. It strengthened Estonia’s visibility as a welcoming wellness destination and opened new opportunities for tourism businesses.

Brand Estonia at Carnegie Hall, New York

We created a branded backdrop based on Estonia’s visual identity for the reception hosted by the Estonian Embassy in New York at Carnegie Hall ahead of Arvo Pärt’s 90th anniversary concert.