Rimowa & Anomaly Celebrate 120 Years Of Never Being Still

 

Rimowa launched its first ever Global integrated campaign, to celebrate the 120th Anniversary of the company. Global ambassadors - all of which are long time Rimowa owners, users and advocates - celebrate the mindset that has made them who they are; ​a fundamental belief that mastery is a never-ending journey and that no one builds a legacy by standing still. A powerful and celebratory statement of the Rimowa brand and what it stands for, but most importantly the people that use and love it.


Twenty-time grand slam winning athlete, Roger Federer; Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton & Founder and Creative Director of Off-White, Virgil Abloh; model, spokesperson and activist, Adwoa Aboah; international chef, businessman and restaurateur, Nobu Matsuhisa; and Dior Men’s jewellery designer & Founder and Creative Director of AMBUSH, Yoon all take part in marking the occasion by sharing their personal interpretations of what travel has meant for their lives.
Created in partnership between Anomaly in Berlin and RIMOWA’s internal creative team, the campaign will be activated globally with special emphasis on RIMOWA’s seven key markets – USA, China, HK, Japan, Germany, UK, and France.
The campaign covers all aspects of communication: from highly eclectic film content (five pieces with five directors, shot on 3 continents, covering online and cinema); to iconic out of home and digital out of home (running in key cities such as New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo); to social and digital content, online experience and event/retail activation. 

Frank Hahn
Executive Creative Director Anomaly
 

Tell us about your role in the creation of this work. 

I am the ECD of Anomaly in Berlin and I co-created and supervised the making of the campaign. I was responsible for the overall creative direction, the choice of storytelling, choice of directors, including production on site and final production.

 

Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about? 

This is the first ever global campaign of RIMOWA, a premium suitcase brand from Germany, part of the LVMH group. The campaign is in celebration of their 120th anniversary and features a select cast of renown cultural icons, all of whom are long-time RIMOWA owners and advocates. What unites them is the collective mindset that has made them who they are - a fundamental belief that mastery is a never ending journey and that no-one builds a legacy by standing still.
The five icons are twenty time Grand Slam winning athlete, ​Roger Federer​; Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton and Founder and Creative Director of Off-White, ​Virgil Abloh​; model, spokesperson and activist, ​Adwoa Aboah​; International Chef and businessman and restaurateur, ​Nobu Matsuhisa​; and Dior Men’s jewellery Designer and Founder and Creative Director of AMBUSH, ​Yoon Ahn​. They all share their personal story and interpretation of what travel has meant for their lives.

 

 

Tell us about the creative brief, what did it ask? 

Create a global campaign that celebrates RIMOWA’s mindset of traveling not being about where you have been but where you have yet to go.

 

Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work? 

In close collaboration with RIMOWA we identified the most powerful stories of genuine RIMOWA users (all of the selected cultural icons are loyal users since over a decade). Those stories ultimately lead to the idea of ‘Never Still’ - the mindset of masters and those who move our world forward. And while we wanted the campaign be kicked off by an impactful anthem film we also realised how powerful and emotional the individual stories were.

 

Can you share with us any alternative ideas (if any) for this campaign? Why was this idea chosen?

We all were convinced about this one direction: ‘This is the one!’

 

How did the client initially react to this idea? 

Every step during this work was in collaboration with RIMOWA. The insights and selection of the celebrities, the access to interviews and their personal stories were an important part of the writing and production of this campaign. During calls with Adwoa, Virgil, even with Roger’s parents we were able to find the very personal and emotional travel story of each icon. Then the writing started and we were able to bring these five stories to life in five very unique pieces of ... art. The clients were part of it and on our side all the way.

 

What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development. 

The simultaneous production of 5 individual films shot by 5 different directors, produced on 3 continents needed a lot of tenacity. And patience. We worked with five incredibly talented directors: Karim Huu Do, Jonas Lindstroem, Dexter Navy, Jared Knecht and IAMHERE. Each of them brought those stories to life in a very unique way. But crucial were the amazing producers on both sides that made the impossible come true.

 


What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience? 

I love each of those films and it makes me proud to see the entire campaign coming to life. Each film goes beyond a personal story. They all are an inspiration to not stand still and to keep moving. Whether it is Adwoa’s very emotional story to overcome depression and to keep moving. Or Roger’s teenage conversation with his dad about his early desire to conquer the world. And quotes like: ‘Visions move forward when we do too.’ (Yoon), and ‘The faster you travel, the sooner a line that divides us disappears.’ (Virgil) are incredible poetic life lessons.

 

Where do you see this campaign going in the future? 

As a campaign, these films can be the beginning of an ongoing storytelling platform for RIMOWA - there are so many more inspiring travel stories out there. We can even imagine to bring them to life as long form content. But the idea of ‘Never Still’ will hopefully be an inspiration for people beyond travel and make them think where to go next - in their lives.
About Frank Hahn: After working in several agencies in Germany (JungvonMatt, Scholz+Friends), he was for almost 12 years part of Wieden+Kennedy, starting in Amsterdam, then running their offices in Shanghai and Tokyo. After moving to the US he was joining for more than five years 72andsunny in Los Angeles. He returned a year ago to Germany to lead and build Anomaly Berlin.