Franz&René shoots the highest class photo in Switzerland

14 students went by helicopter to the location of the shooting. Accompanied by professional mountain guides and with a breathtaking panorama, this unique picture was taken in the Valais mountain landscape.

This year, the HES-SO Valais-Wallis wanted to stage its own students. As a first stage, a casting was held to challenge the courage of the participants. The students registered on Die-ganz-schoen-hohe-schule.ch to then test them by abseiling down the facade of the school building in Sierre. From numerous registrations, 15 have now been selected for the final shoot in February. The students did not know what to expect when they arrived at the Valais station Le Châble with their ski equipment.

Creative courage as a trademark

This original campaign follows last year's HES-SO Valais-Wallis videos featuring freerider Laurent de Martin and freeride mountain biker Ramon Hunziker. The two viral videos garnered a total of over 1.4 million views on social media. The new film was shot by a four-person camera crew that used two drone cameras, among other equipment. The photo was printed on a large tarp that will be hung on the wall of the HES-SO Valais-Wallis in Sierre and later inside the building. The spot was published on Facebook and YouTube on March 7.

Organization to the millimeter

Avalanche search equipment and climbing harness are only the foretaste of the organization to bring the 14 students within a few minutes to the 2400m high Pierre Avoi.

If you want to aim high professionally, you have to study at a pretty high school. The Valais, with its 41 four-thousand-meter peaks, is the ideal place to get an education in a unique environment. This is illustrated in a highly original way in this advertising campaign, which was conceived and realized by the Bernese advertising agency franz & rené. The dynamics of the HES-SO Valais-Wallis with its four quite high schools (engineering, health, economy and tourism, social work), 2,300 students in 9 study programs and 7 research institutes is also illustrated in this impressive way. A young and innovative advertising campaign of a young and innovative university of applied sciences.

Responsible at HES-SO Valais-Wallis: Xavier Bianco (Communications & Marketing Officer). Responsible at Franz&René: Valérie Pecalvel (Strategic Direction), Luciano Gerber (Client Service Direction), Vincent Eichenberger (Campaign Manager), Yoann Cosson (Creative direction, textes), Gaëlle Valentini (Digital Art Director). Partner: Verbier Tourisme, Movement - The Freeski Company, Petzl, AirGlacier. Film Production: Woop productions. Photographer: Sébastien Staub photography. Mountain guide: Worldguiding.ch. Music: "Make U Greedy," La Fine Equipe (Nowadays Records).