“I believe in emotion”

A meeting with the head of international marketing behind the premium brand Le Gruyère AOP

“I believe in super-premium quality,” Denis Kaser says as he gently runs his hand over the cover of his Le Gruyère AOP Pageturning® Videobook. On the cover is a round of cheese, which is aged over five months and evaluated before going to market. It must pass muster with the company’s cheese connoisseur before it can bear the name of Le Gruyère AOP. Quality is the great leitmotif of the Swiss. And the look, smell and taste of the cheese from Pringy Gruyères, as it travels the world as Le Gruyère AOP, is yet another symbol of Swiss quality.

The video book outlines the company’s mission in life. Page after page reveals the essentials of making hard cheese—from the grazing of the cows to the strict production criteria. Over 1,800 milk producers from more than 160 cheese dairies deliver the milk for production twice a day. Between May and early October, Le Gruyère d’Alpage AOP is produced in 55 alpages. The best rounds are made by eleven specially selected dairies chosen for the months-long ripening process that gives the cheese its very special character. Before Le Gruyère AOP is ready for the market, it must be aged for at least 5 months. The elaborate process these traditional local dairies undergo is folded into the larger marketing vision of Denis Kaser, a self-proclaimed “champion of storytelling.” In his view, “Every company, every product tells its own story. My job as international ambassador of Le Gruyère AOP is to find the right way to tell our story.” To Kaser, the main ingredient of his company’s marketing success is quality.

By coincidence, Kaser had a video card standing on his desk a colleague had given him, made by Audio Logo. Shortly after he called and talked to Audio Logo founder Chris Bardin, the pandemic hit. “Within a very short time we were dependent upon virtual meetings,” Kaser said. “We wanted to do something to bridge this alienation and communicate compassion and respect. This is how the first video card for the French market came about.

1,200 copies of the elaborately produced card acted as audio visual ambassadors to journalists, PR specialists and influencers. The “Crémerie Fromagerie” accompanied a box with a kilo of Le Gruyère AOP cheese. The positive response from recipients was immense. The crucial insight: A premium product requires a premium medium to tell its story. “We take a lot of care when making our Cheese – after all, a cultural asset since 1115 – down to the smallest quality details are fulfilled with every wheel of cheese, the numerous criteria of the specifications. We’re so strict because the cheese does not forgive negligence. They would taste it,” Kaser said. “To this day we have never had one single quality complaint at Le Gruyère AOP.”

This obsession with visually telling the “quality” story gave birth to the Pageturning® Videobook. Step by step, it vividly outlines the precision and attention to detail behind this global Swiss brand. But the book itself, also hand-crafted with incredible attention to detail, represents the quality of the brand as well. Le Gruyere AOP owes its incomparable taste and its impeccable quality, primarily to craft know-how, handed down from generation to generation. A premium product needs a premium medium to tell its story correctly. Le Gruyère AOP brand – the abbreviation of which is a recognized seal of origin with the strictest quality requirements – has become a cultural asset because it has passed through the hands of numerous people who pursue their profession with passion and experience and let a product mature whose excellence takes not less than 5 months, and sometimes only measured after 18 months of aging. This is exactly Kaser’s story and it’s not surprising that he has caused such a stir with this Pageturning® Videobook in this otherwise traditional industry.

He recently ignited the next stage of his gentle revolution. After the different versions of the video cards were produced in collaboration with Audio Logo, their creative alliance arrived in novel territory. The result is the first 360° touchscreen video card that can be navigated via a touchscreen with the tip of your finger. The cinematic journey to Le Gruyère AOP begins in a cowshed, which is separated from the entire stable area where everything can be explored including the dairy cow in close up. It fulfills Kaser’s wish that one should see the people and their work behind the product as if you were there yourself. Cheese remains his passion. One which can be experienced with the eyes, ears and hands is included in the communication projects produced with Audio Logo. And the story isn’t over yet. It remains to be seen with how the rest of the story will unfold.

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