Wüsthof Marketing Campaign Welcomes Three New Chefs

Wüsthof, celebrating its 200th anniversary, rolls out phase three of its “Defining the Edge” campaign, the brand’s multi-platform consumer marketing initiative that originally launched in spring 2012. 

Anchored by a media-rich microsite, www.wusthofedge.com, and top-tier national and regional advertising in digital and print media, “Defining the Edge” welcomes a talented trio of chefs to its growing roster of edgy culinary professionals: the Mäverick (Ann Kim of Pizzeria Lola in Minneapolis); the Nätural (Sam Gorenstein of My Ceviche in Miami); and the Artisän (Clayton Chapman of The Grey Plume in Omaha, Neb.).

“We’re thrilled to spotlight three amazingly talented and diverse chefs to our high-profile campaign, which continues to break ground in our industry and gain high praise from our retail customers and consumers,” said Annette Garaghty, vice president of sales and marketing at Wüsthof-Trident of America. “We’re especially excited to enter the third phase of our campaign during our milestone 200th anniversary. The creative for this campaign is founded on the idea of celebrating culinary professionals who, very much like our brand, are continuously raising the bar on excellence, and constantly challenging the status quo. We’re delighted to showcase chefs who perfectly reflect our company’s DNA, which is the key reason for our enduring success.”

Unveiling this week on Wüsthof’s newly redesigned microsite, the three new chefs will be simultaneously introduced with evocative documentary-style videos that reveal their values, motives, inspirations, challenges and distinctively defined attitudes about their culinary craft. Chef content on the microsite will continue to expand throughout the year with instructional Web videos filmed on location, with each chef showcasing recipe demonstrations using Wüsthof knives. The recipe-oriented and instructional chef videos will be supplemented with chef blog postings on various topics, ranging from unexpected tips on cooking and entertaining to philosophical views on culinary subjects.

In tandem with this month’s introduction of the Mäverick, the Nätural, and the Artisän, a broad-based digital banner ad campaign, featuring teaser videos of the three chefs, begins rolling out in targeted epicurean, urban lifestyle, home design, and luxury lifestyle digital media.

Beginning this season and through the end of the year, the new Edgë chefs will appear individually and together in the print edition of numerous select and strategically targeted national publications as well.

“From the start, the campaign’s objective has been to reach hyper-connected, food-centric consumers, who delight in discovering, interacting with and sharing culinary information through posts on social media,” said Garaghty. “While our culinary focus remains in place, this year we’re extending our reach to savvy consumers keenly interested in high design and luxury products.”

In addition, each of the chefs will appear in single portrait advertisements placed in a customized mix of regional magazines reflecting their home base, such as Minnesota Monthly, Miami Magazine, and Omaha Magazine.