Verbier launches the biggest selfie in Switzerland

Visitors to Verbier can now be captured in a giant selfie at 2220m of altitude as Verbier installs its first “gigaselfie” station at Les Ruinettes, where photos will include a stunning panorama of the Bagnes valley and Mont-Blanc massif as their backdrop.

Each day, millions of internet users around the world share photos and videos over social media, and the selfie has become one of the most preferred photography methods to do so. Thanks to the continual improvements in smartphone technology, users can easily capture great times with friends, as well as their favourite holiday destinations, without the need of another photographer and can share their favourite moments.

Tapping into the trend of skiers and travellers around the world sharing selfies over social media, the resort of Verbier is offering a new experience that allows its guests the chance to immortalise a unique moment in the resort’s incredible alpine landscape. To launch the first gigaselfie in Switzerland, the resort of Verbier is working in partnership with Sharingbox, an events company specialising in photographic marketing campaigns; Canon, one of the market leaders in the photographic industry; and car manufacturer, Audi.

This initiative, simply entitled “#TheVerbierSelfie”, will take place in the Verbier – 4 Vallées ski area during the 2017 winter season from February. Anyone with a smartphone can take part. The set-up doesn’t require an extra set of hands to run and is situated on the piste in the Ruinettes ski area (2220m), which is also accessible on foot. It will later move to another site in the centre of the village (the exact location will be disclosed in March).

The instructions are very simple: all users need to do is locate the large selfie camera (Les Ruinettes near the wooden letters spelling Verbier), activate it using their smartphone, and then they’ll receive an email of their selfie in the middle of the stunning Verbier panorama, which they can then share on social media.

Once the user triggers the photo from their smartphone, a Canon camera over 200 metres away takes two high-resolution shots. These two images (one with a zoom and one with a wide angle lens) will automatically sync into a video showing the user, and then panning out to the panorama producing a high-quality effect; better than the abilities of the average smartphone selfie camera.

This is just one of the ways in which tourist organisations around the resort of Bagnes are continuing to invest in digital communication, encouraging its guests to become its foremost ambassadors. Pierre-André Gremaud, director of Verbier Promotion SA says: “We have to communicate in innovative ways and give guests unique opportunities to take photos to remember their holiday forever”.

How it works

1. The user goes to the correct spot (Les Ruinettes from 2 February, where there are the wooden letters spelling Verbier)
2. The user connects to theverbierselfie.com and registers on the site to activate the camera
3. The user looks in the right direction whilst smiling at the mountains (in the direction of the Mouton Noir restaurant)
4. A few seconds later, the user receives their selfie by email (in video format)
5. They can share their selfie on social media with the hashtag #TheVerbierSelfie

Website: www.theverbierselfie.com

Presentation video: https://youtu.be/CKqRTQrkvr8
Selfie preview: https://youtu.be/YV3xe6-0p1c

Some stats:

The figures speak for themselves: 1 million selfies are shared every day on social media among 18–24 year-olds (source: https://infogr.am/selfie-statistics). On Instagram, over 160,000 photos and videos have already been shared with the hashtag #verbier (Verbier is one of the top 10 most instagrammed alpine ski resorts in the world).

Partners:

Sharingbox

Sharingbox is an events agency which helps brands to interact with potential customers through photographic marketing campaigns.

Sharingbox operates throughout 20 countries and carried out almost 10,000 installations in 2016. Each year it puts in place a select number of diverse, creative and symbolic installations.

The panoramic selfie project strikes a chord with its passion for innovation. The concept, first used in 2016 on the other side of the world, has been revamped and improved.

In Verbier, the desire was to create an autonomous system, which allows users to take their own panoramic selfie without human intervention – automisation being a key part of Sharingbox’s offering.

This ensures a stunning visual effect with a vibrant photo that combines a selfie and a panoramic view (made possible thanks to the help of Canon and its latest reflex cameras).

The result is that skiers see themselves set in a sublime panorama, with an original photo they can share, a one-off moment that stays with them forever.

Audi

“We are proud to partner this gigaselfie project and that Verbier, the “Home of the Quattro”, is laying on new tech attractions” says Nick Boettcher, Events & Sponsoring Director at Audi. “This project is aligned with our company mission statement, Vorsprung durch Technik – Progress through Technology.”