"The number of visitations during the campaign has changed as follows: In the beginning of the campaign, in its first days, there were over a 1,000 visits a day. The average visitations over the first and second weeks were around 640 a day and the average for the final week was 200 daily," deputy director of the strategy unit at the Government Office Eili Lepik told ERR.

She said the first TV commercials to introduce "Estonia 2035" ran on January 4 and the digital campaign began on January 5, while the "Estonia 2035" webpage was made available on January 4 as well.

Ten television channels were used to market "Estonia 2035" - TV3, TV6, FOX, Fox Life, National Geographic, Nickelodeon, 3+,CTC, TNT and Pjatnitsa; along with nine web channels - Delfi.ee, Postimees.ee, SmartAd, Postimees.ee, AdForm, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and AdVideo.

The media platforms cost a total of €18,700 without VAT and the production of commercials cost €5,006 without VAT, making the total amount spent €28,447, Lepik said.

"Estonia 2035" is a long-term strategy created by the Government Office and the Ministry of Finance that the government approved on October 8 with then prime minister Jüri Ratas (Center) presenting it to the Riigikogu for discussions on October 12. That was followed by discussions in Riigikogu committees in December with additional interest group consultations conducted in January, Lepik explained.

She said the creation of "Estonia 2035" involved more than 17,000 Estonian residents through nationwide brainstorming sessions, seminars, workshops, meetings and Opinion Festival (Arvamusfestival) discussions.

"The strategy will be connected to sectoral development plans and the state budget process and will be a base for the planning of next period's EU support. Therefore, the goal of its creation and implementation is to consider the transparent ideas of as many interested people, partners and experts as possible," Lepik noted.

She confirmed that the introductory campaign for the strategy was not meant as a support measure for commercial media channels, but rather "to give an overview of the development routes over the next decade described in the 'Estonia 2035' strategy and an opportunity for everyone to have a say in it."

"Since a webpage for 'Estonia 2035' opened in the first weeks of January, giving everyone a chance to get acquintated with the strategy's content, action plan, implementation process and indicators, then we called people to our new webpage through commercials to meet the new strategy and to think along. That is how we are able to involve partners and like-minded people to the strategy's implementation," the Governement Office official emphasized.

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