Responses by Fabian Messer, brand strategist, Positioner.

Background: The iconic hotel Gstaad Palace has been enthroned above Gstaad, Switzerland, for 107 years and remains one of the grand dames of the worldwide luxury hotel industry. However, the time was ripe for the hotel to embrace a new vision: one that would rejuvenate it to attract new guests while preserving the elements that earn it respect among its large base of loyal returning guests. We were brought in to refresh the hotel’s image, including creating a new brand appearance with a distinctive visual and verbal language and communication approach that would be distinctive and true to its heritage. One of the ways we brought our strategy to life was to create an authentic and interactive living story for Gstaad Palace in the form of a new website.

Design core: Structured in an innovative storybook format with horizontal scrolling, the website invites its audience into the real world of Gstaad Palace. Contemporary design elements and features give web visitors the most intimate digital experience of Gstaad Palace that has ever been seen.

Navigation structure: We focused on a combination of inspirational and informative content, keeping things simple and straightforward. The different levels include the main navigation with chapters, an overview that lets users switch between summer and winter split content, and a separate booking panel.

Technology: We used the Umbraco CMS, which we like for various reasons. It’s open source, which opens up infinite possibilities and enables us to take complete control of our projects. It runs on .NET Core 6.0, the latest open-source technology developed by Microsoft and one of the most robust, mature and modern development frameworks available. And it keeps evolving in a good way: Umbraco’s first version was released in 2003. Now we’re on version ten, and there are plans for new versions in upcoming years. Umbraco is not a 20-year-“old” CMS, though, as the CMS has been continually rewritten to include the latest tech. The team behind it has even changed the framework it was built on to ensure only the latest and robust tech is in use, completely rewriting the whole product from scratch. That means it’s a very modern CMS with 20 years of experience.