We are pleased to speak with Nils Persson, Chief Marketing Officer at Visit Sweden, whose latest campaign, “Visit the Original Sweden”, earned a Grand Award at the 2025 US International Awards. For this award-winning project, Nils and his team developed a concept around the idea of originality, playing on the insight that several places around the world are called Sweden — but only one is the original - seamlessly blending cultural authenticity with creative storytelling.
Under Nils’ leadership, Visit Sweden has consistently launched innovative campaigns that have impressed audiences and juries alike, and that have also rocked previous editions of the US International Awards, cementing his reputation as a true force in destination marketing.
Congratulations on your Grand Award! What does it mean to you, your team, and all the people involved in this project to receive this award?
Thanks! First of all, it’s a great honor to win an award like this. For both me and the team, it brings energy and serves as acknowledgment that our efforts truly pay off.
Can you run us through the creative process behind the winning work you entered into the 2025 US International Awards?
We’ve been working with a concept called “Destination of a Different Nature” and “Luxury of a Different Nature”. This work can be seen as part of a series of three: “Discover the Originals”, “Sweden (not Switzerland)”, and “Visit the Original Sweden”.
For this project, we started from the insight and trend around “dupes,” especially in luxury goods, and discovered that there are several places around the world called Sweden — but we are the original Sweden. We started the work in early 2024 and first went with another idea, and the concept evolved a lot around how we could tell different things about Sweden as a destination.
The biggest challenge was the weather during the shoot — it rained for large parts of the day. What I’m most proud of is the final result, which includes several short films of 6–15 seconds each that we also produced.
What were your expectations when entering? Did you assume you would be in the race for a Grand Award?
We always aim to win when we enter an award, but we don’t take it for granted. The competition is tough, and there’s a lot of excellent work to compete with.
Now, please tell us something about yourself. Can you give us a brief bio and disclose your background?
I’m the CMO and part of the group management team at Visit Sweden, a role I’ve held for the past five years. This is my second tenure with the organization. I’ve been working in marketing, branding, business and product development, and change management for over 20 years across various industries, including banking, telco, media, energy, and travel and destination marketing.
What are some of your works that played a major role in your professional career or that deem to be important to you?
That’s hard to answer, as many projects have played a significant role in my career for different reasons. Two recent campaigns I’m especially proud of are “Discover the Originals” that we launched in 2021 and “Sweden (not Switzerland)” launched in 2023.
What was the most challenging project you worked on so far?
Good question — there have been many challenging projects over the years. One that stands out was a consumer app combining IoT with family services. We took it from tech innovation and product/service design through naming, marketing, branding, and finally to launch.
Can you describe your creative process for us?
We always look deep into insights and trends, both from a target group perspective, travel trends, and more general culture trends. We collaborate closely with a creative agency, beginning with a broad exploration before narrowing our focus. All work has to check several boxes. It’s also important that our work is authentic and genuinely grounded in reality, often with a twist of humor.
In your opinion, what makes a “good” corporate video? And how important is branded video content for brands?
Authenticity is most important, and you need to build it on insights and deliver it in a way that captures the audience.
What advice would you give to aspiring filmmakers and video creators looking to enter competitions and make a mark in the industry?
Go the extra mile, pay attention to details, focus on execution, and remember that your go-to-market strategy is also very important.
