Valais Botanical

Valais is the mineral water from Aproz in the Valais, bottled by Switzerland's largest mineral water bottler. Its line: "We are water lovers".

• Client: FFB Group, Migros Industrie AG
• Built by: Geyst AG (Jan Stalder)

Valais is the mineral water from Aproz in the Valais, bottled by Switzerland's largest mineral water bottler. Its line: "We are water lovers".

Mineral water is a fiercely contested shelf with international competition, and flavoured waters make it even more crowded. In 2021 Geyst AG relaunches Valais nationally with "We Are Water Lovers"; in 2022 the second line follows: Valais Botanical, mineral water with a hint of fruit and botanical aromas, sugar-free, in three flavours. For this launch Jan Stalder proposes something nobody at Valais had tried until then: no longer photographing the bottles at great expense, but building them entirely in 3D. Geyst backs the idea because it makes the agency more agile, and from summer 2022 until May 2023, key visuals, packshots and 6-packs for posters, print and online are created together with Geyst's art director.

• Bottles entirely in 3D • Three flavours, three arrangements • Packshots and 6-packs • With and without condensation • Key visuals in four stages • Poster, flyer, print ad and banner • German, French, Italian • Scenes in Unreal Engine 5

Fresh for as long as the campaign runs

A photographed packshot works for exactly one bottle, one lighting set-up and one arrangement. Valais Botanical comes in three flavours, each with its own arrangement, raspberry with verbena, apricot with elderflower, lemon with mint, each as a single bottle and in a 6-pack, with and without condensation drops, in three languages. In the old process every variant would have needed a shoot of its own, with a studio, lighting and fruit that no longer looks fresh after an hour.

A kit instead of a camera

Each bottle is built as a 3D model, the label as a separate part right down to its creases, and fruits, blossoms and leaves as individual models, from the lemon to the raspberry bush. From this kit come packshots, key visuals and 6-packs, and a new variant is a new render, not a new studio appointment. The fruit stays as fresh as on day one, even in May of the following year.

From the print ad to the station

Each key visual grows in four stages: first the bottle alone with half a fruit and a sprig, then leaves, then more fruits and blossoms, until the full arrangement surrounds the bottle. Each stage is an image in its own right, the sparse one for a small ad, the full one for the poster at the railway station. One motif that adapts to every format, instead of a format that demands a new motif.

Now new at your Migros

In the shop the line arrives with a flyer: "Now new at your Migros", one flavour per page in its full arrangement, @valaismineral and #wearewaterlovers at the bottom. The poster, 1,220 by 1,790 millimetres, sets apricot and raspberry side by side under the brand's line in large red letters.

The ads run in all three national languages with the same row of bottles: "Wir sind dein Naturmoment für unterwegs", "Ton moment nature où que tu sois", "Un goccio di natura sempre con te". Because the motifs are rendered, a new language only takes a new line.

The third flavour in three months

In February 2023 lemon-mint is added. The bottle stays the same; the label, the contents, the lemons and the mint are new, and no shoot is needed. Packshots and 6-pack are ready at the end of February, the key visual in March, and in April the "minimal" versions follow: bottle, half a fruit, a few leaves, nothing else.

All the way to real time

The renders carry the campaign all the way to the online banners. In May 2023 the work goes one step further: poster motifs are also created in Unreal Engine 5, with scanned plants and a raspberry bush built from scratch.

No bottle in front of a camera

David Wallmer, Senior Brand Manager Water at the FFB Group, says of the collaboration: "What we value about working with Geyst is that they actively take ownership of the brand and identify strongly with it. With the 2021 relaunch Geyst succeeded in shaping Valais for the long term." Valais Botanical carries this look forward, with a kit in which every further flavour is simply a new render. On the shelf, nobody noticed that not a single bottle was placed in front of a camera for this campaign.