The Swiss mountain sports outfitter Mammut has long been known for its innovative advertising campaigns. Some of its current campaigns feature several hundred amateur models in extraordinary settings in the Alps. Mammut has now received the prestigious Swiss Marketing Award for its current campaign. PowderGuide asked Mammut how such ideas come about, how such mass campaigns are staged and how the safety of 220 freeriders skiing the same slope at the same time is ensured.
Jutta Römmelt, Head of Print Media at Mammut, in a PG interview
Mammut recently received the prestigious GFM Award from the Swiss Marketing Association for its current advertising campaign (image + gallery). We therefore asked Mammut how such campaigns are created - from the idea to the finished advertisement
.
PG: Hello Jutta, you're head of print advertising at Mammut, please briefly describe what your job entails.
Jutta: My team and I are responsible for all the print media that Mammut publishes. This means that we design all the flyers, the dealer workbook and other print media. In collaboration with the various departments, we determine the content and organize the production of these print media until they are finished.
We have a number of tasks for the current "Mammut Testevents" campaign. These range from setting up the images to selecting the shooting location, coordinating the photographer and agency and ensuring the making-of photos and films. After the test event, we make a photo selection, put the stories about the test weekend on paper and then fine-tune the images and flyers until we are all satisfied with the result.
PG: The Mammut campaigns always stand out from the typical, often rather old-fashioned mountain sports advertising, such as the 80-year-old Everest aspirant or the freerider who messes with the rockers (because he feels too safe). How do you come up with these ideas and how do such campaigns come about?
Jutta: The ideas for the various campaigns come from the collaboration between our advertising agency and our internal marketing department.
PG: The current advertising campaign stands out because an extremely large number of winter sports enthusiasts are staged and depicted in an unusual way. This depiction is totally atypical, as mountain sports are individual sports that are practiced in small groups. How did you come up with the idea of placing 30 mountain guides on the "Little Camel" rocky mountain on the Furka Pass, for example?
Jutta: In the end, 30 mountain guides, athletes and employees stood in front of Röbi Bösch's lens as models for this motif. There wouldn't have been room for anyone else on this rock. Robi Bösch also had the idea of taking the picture on the Furka Pass on this very striking rock.
PG: Then there are the other mass campaign photos: The high mountain sleep-in advertises your sleeping bags, the many hikers in their underwear advertise your new underwear collection and then, in addition to the headlamp campaign, there are the freeriders all skiing the same slope at the same time. Here you have more than 200 freeriders skiing the same slope at the same time. Doesn't this require immense safety precautions?
Jutta: Safety is the top priority at the test events. That's why it's also correct that you shouldn't be out in the mountains with a large number of people. The safety aspect plays an important role in the planning and conception of the shoots. In the current campaign, we chose the slope very carefully together with the Uri Mountain School. It was less than 30° steep and was deemed safe by the experts. At each shoot, the participants are supervised by numerous mountain guides and are perfectly equipped with safety equipment.
We do not want to depict a real situation with the photos and strongly advise against imitating them. After all, this is an advertising shoot. The whole shoot is a staging, with which we present our highlight of the season using spectacular and surprising images in alpine surroundings.
PG: As a freerider photographer, you know how time-consuming it is to take a good picture. How many times did you have to let the winter sports enthusiasts ski down the slope until the shot was satisfactorily finished?
Jutta: Röbi only needed two attempts before the photo was in the box. But that sounds easier than it was. It took two to three hours just to get all the participants to the slope and set up in a triangular formation. As the sun didn't really want to shine that day, we had to wait over an hour for good light. All in all, a shoot like this takes a whole day.
PG: A production like this is a huge amount of work. How long does it take to produce a complete campaign like this? How many people are involved?
Jutta: We have already been planning the campaigns for winter 2010/11 and summer 2011 for many weeks. The highlight will be the test event in spring and then everything has to be completed so that the advertisements and flyers are ready for the fall.
Numerous employees from the marketing department are working on the entire campaign with the event and everything that goes with it. There are three of us from the print team, two people are completely responsible for the organization, including sleeping arrangements, food and entertainment. Two people prepare the whole story for our
base camp, which participants can currently use to register for the test event in March.
PG: Jutta, thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions.
