Go to the mountains with Camp

Sporting goods marketing company Sennhauser Communications is giving Alpine & Climbing Equipment a new look for its camp products. In the last UN Year of Mountains, the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) huts recorded an eight percent increase in visitors. For Peter Mäder, SAC Managing Director, this is a sign that nature and the mountain world represent an increasingly important contrast to the sensory overload of everyday life. For Silvia De Vito from Switzerland Tourism, the fact that this also reflects the persistently poor economic situation is another possible reason why these low-cost accommodations are preferred. Due to recent events, the organization recently had to revise its expectations for 2003 downwards and is expecting another year of decline. De Vito explains that it is difficult to predict whether domestic tourists will make up for part of the slump. In any case, the safety factor has a major influence on vacation planning, but those who want to storm the Swiss peaks instead of the Himalayas are not immune to dangers here in Switzerland either and will therefore not be able to avoid good equipment. Such equipment is primarily defined by safety and weight. Camp, the Italian specialist for alpine hardware, also tries to combine these main characteristics in its products. The brand is distributed and promoted in Switzerland by the general importer Alpine & Climbing Equipment (ACE) in Amden.
To kick off the climbing and hiking season, Richard Bolt, owner of ACE, launched a consumer campaign with Sennhauser Communications. Advertiser Rene Sennhauser, who has been in charge of the camp budget for three years, tried from the very beginning,
to design the campaign "differently" for the modest market segment - Bolt estimates the volume at around one to two million francs. Whereas the advertisements used to be based on product images, accompanied by a witty headline, this year Sennhauser and his team are focusing on unusual stagings of pimples and ko.
Campaign for every age group
To dramatize the key benefit "safety" of Camp's "Startech" helmet, a helmeted skull with numbered bones is intended to show that there are "more than 1000 good reasons for the Startech". Another motif plays with the SAC logo, in which the outdated ice axe has been replaced by the contemporary "Alpax" from Camp. Sennhauser is eager to see how the club reacts to this, as its members' magazine Die Alpen is the most important medium for advertising. ACE wants to target alpinists of all ages with its current appearance. Nevertheless, the cheeky campaign is aimed more at a younger generation, says Bolt. This is also the clientele of tomorrow.
Sennhauser plays a witty, sometimes morbid game with alpine motifs for the Italian climbing outfitter Camp.
Simone Keller