Turning Brands into Gen Z’s Best Friends

There’s a competitive streak in Caroline Inkeroinen that’s impossible to miss. Born and raised in Helsinki, she spent her youth on football pitches and in cheerleading squads – team arenas that taught her how to win with others, not over them.

Her mother describes her as “brave, creative, quick-witted, resourceful” – but not a selfish competitor. When Caroline once asked what she was like as a child, her mother replied: “In play you have led the games well, choosing roles suitable for everyone without always taking the best role for yourself, a true team player who gives space to others as well.”

At school, she received a Joy Spreader award, given to the pupil who lifted everyone around them. “They couldn’t give you recognition in the tough subjects like math or physics, but they still wanted to reward you in some way, so they came up with the Joy Spreader award,” her mother told her – the kind of blunt humour that could only come from a Finn.

"You get others excited about games and inspire everyone to give their best,” she continued. “I’ve also noticed that you don’t mind if someone else wins, as long as they themselves have given their all. But I do need to say that you are sometimes very, very competitive, but luckily not a sore loser.”

Caroline laughs at the accuracy of it. “I’m very ambitious,” she says. “I’ve always played team sports and also competed internationally. That competitive drive has definitely shifted from sports to my current work.”

That drive has propelled her from university marketing student to one of the Finnish industry’s fastest-rising social creatives. As content creative at TBWA\Helsinki, Caroline is behind Taco Bell Finland’s social media revamp – a transformation that didn’t just boost followers by 230% but re-shaped how an American fast-food brand could speak fluent Finnish gen z.

When Caroline took over Taco Bell’s social channels at the end of 2023, she found a brand struggling to connect. “Taco Bell’s channels were in desperate need of an update and content that fit the target audience,” she says. “As Taco Bell’s social media admin I started creating content on the terms of the gen-z target group and engaging with them in their own (or actually my own) language. I was just kind of channelling my own personality.”

Her instincts paid off. By leaning into memes, playful language, and community interaction, she replaced corporate polish with authentic conversation. Within a year, Taco Bell Finland’s TikTok following grew from 900 to 22,000, building real friendships with followers and winning the 2025 Grand One Award for Best Social Media Presence.

“Social media, like the entire advertising industry, is highly visible; your work is out there for everyone to see and evaluate,” says Caroline. “My goal is that when people come across content I’ve created or ideas I’ve brought to life, their reaction is positive and they’ll remember it for more than three seconds.”

Caroline only just graduated this August with a master’s degree in economics and business administration, specialising in marketing. Before that, she completed her bachelor of business administration in 2022. “My study experience hasn’t been anything particularly glamorous, since just as I started school in 2019, the pandemic hit and completely shut down social life,” she says.

That didn’t stop her creative drive. While studying, she freelanced for brands, managing her first professional TikTok account six years ago for a Finnish cosmetics company. “I had never done anything like this before, so I studied what kind of content other cosmetics accounts around the world were creating,” she recalls. “I was given quite a lot of creative freedom, which was really fun, and the client trusted me.” In six months, the account grew from zero to 6,000 followers.

Her path to TBWA was more pragmatic than planned. “I didn’t really know any advertising agencies in Finland, I simply applied to every internship position I could find so that I would be able to graduate,” she says. The fact that she ended up specifically at TBWA was a coincidence – but a fortunate one.

For someone whose job demands constant social connection, Caroline keeps a remarkably grounded outlook. “Even if I did get stressed, I wouldn’t want it to show on the outside,” she admits. “I don’t consider myself melancholic but rather an optimist, because why would I waste my life on worries and negative thoughts?”

That optimism threads through her creative philosophy. “Since I work at an agency and have more than one project or client going on at the same time, I have to be able to manage my working hours and know how to say no if I realise I’m overloaded,” she says. “A creative mind needs rest.”

Outside of work, she channels that same balance into everyday creativity – sharing makeup looks and recipes with her 37,000 TikTok followers, exploring new restaurants with friends, and planning to run a half marathon. And with her thesis recently completed, she has all the time in the world (outside of her job in a dynamic creative agency) to pursue these passions. “I feel like the whole world is open for new projects and for expressing myself,” she says.

Her optimism, curiosity, and lightness of touch are perhaps the secret ingredients behind the Taco Bell transformation. “It might sound like a cliché, but what really drives me is the constant desire to become better,” she says. “Work becomes exciting when it’s a little challenging and gives you the chance to come up with new ideas.”

While her job is firmly screen-based, real human energy is important to Caroline. “I also believe that working in an agency surrounded by brilliant people is one of the best ways to grow, develop new ideas, and draw inspiration from those with more experience,” she says.

Caroline can see room for improvement in how the wider industry treats social media creativity – and the young talent shaping it. “Maybe it’s the fact that some people still don’t see social media as a credible medium, even though it reaches almost every target group in a cost-effective way,” she says. “It feels like we still have to prove the importance of social media in certain situations and, unfortunately, sometimes it’s the last thing considered when going through a brief, and then, at the very last minute, we’re expected to pull incredible ideas out of nowhere.”

Her answer is simple: trust those who live the platforms every day. “They bring fresh perspectives and a genuine understanding of what resonates in today’s culture,” she says. “Giving young professionals the space to share their insights and shape ideas not only empowers them but also pushes the whole team forward.”

She ends on a line that neatly captures both her groundedness and her philosophy on creativity: “At the end of the day, we’re working in a creative field, not in a hospital where lives are at stake. My favourite saying is ‘It’s PR not ER’. Creativity thrives when there’s room for experimentation, play, and even failure.”