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The latest global campaign for LVMH’s cult luxury brand RIMOWA is a tribute to the company’s commitment to engineering and its German roots.
Since its establishment in Cologne in 1898, luxury luggage brand RIMOWA has moved discerning travellers forward through the resilience, lightness and stability of its mobility tools.
For its latest campaign created by Anomaly's Berlin office, the brand is celebrating what truly enables lifelong journeys everywhere: its German engineering.
The 360 campaign, titled “Ingenieurskunst” - a word that only exists in German, which literally translates into “The Art of Engineering” - highlights the poetry in the brand’s finely-tuned engineering processes. It’s led by a sleek, futuristic film that features hand-built sets that echo the meticulous craftsmanship behind every RIMOWA piece.
In an ode to RIMOWA’s signature aluminium, the campaign features kinetic installations that showcase German engineering like the world has never seen it before: as art.
Made from 6000 rivets, 180 sheets of anodized aluminium, and shells of the Classic Cabin suitcase, the installations pay homage to the craftsmanship of the iconic luggage: from the harmony of the raw, chrome, and matte materials used to create the products, to the symphonic relationship between heavy machinery and the delicate handcrafting that has been mastered by RIMOWA engineers.
“The topic of German engineering might be considered dry or technical,” says Emelie De Vitis, Chief Marketing Officer at RIMOWA. “But as our head engineer describes, ‘it is more like a symphony’. We wanted to show that German engineering – which is at the core of who we are - is truly considered art at RIMOWA.”
The sets in the film are also being redeployed as art installations during a series of events around the globe - a reflection of RIMOWA’s commitment to durability and sustainability. An immersive AR experience will also be incorporated as part of the campaign, inviting audiences to interact with the engineering steps of the Classic Cabin suitcase.
The campaign is directed and photographed by production company Iconoclast’s Maik Schuster of the Berlin director’s collective I AM HERE.
To create the art installations, Anomaly and Schuster collaborated with Acte, a cross-disciplinary art and design studio also based in Berlin. Daft Punk’s electro classic ‘Around the World’ forms a sublime undercurrent to the subtly futuristic imagery, which is juxtaposed with the brand’s timeless design aesthetic and rich heritage. It's the first time this song has been used in an ad.
In a nod to RIMOWA’s German heritage, the song is transformed into an orchestral cover by the Cologne-based Gürzenich-Orchester for the reveal of “The Hochzeit”, meaning ‘wedding’ in English – what the engineers call the moment when two RIMOWA aluminium shells are joined for the first time.
“The true star of this campaign is the engineering of the iconic Classic Cabin. We wanted to subvert this notion that something more product focused has to be technical or cold. This was about putting the functional excellence of RIMOWA on the artistic and cultural pedestal it truly deserves,” says Sebastian Lyman, Group Creative Director at Anomaly Berlin.
CREDITS
RIMOWA
CEO: Hugues Bonnet-Masimbert
CMO: Emelie De Vitis
Head of Marketing: Tania Delamotte
Global Marketing Coordinator: Balkis Abd Rabbo
Creative and Content Manager: Lorenzo Garizio
Head of Global Communications: Samantha Garrett
Senior Digital and Media Marketing Manager: Kristen Hansen
Digital Marketing and Media Manager: Julia Serafin
ANOMALY
CEO / Partner: Simon Owen
Executive Creative Director: Azsa West
Group Creative Director: Sebastian Lyman
Creative Director: Justin Fly
Senior Art Director: Marc Garreta
Copywriter: Omar Khairy
Creative Director: Lukas Rohde
Head of Production: Michael Macmillan
Senior Producer: Michelle Prinsloo
Producer: Eric Kim
Senior Account Director: Elizabeth Asselin
Senior Account Manager: Sonja Draskovic
Project Director: Stephanie Kolb
Project Manager: Lucy Shaw
Junior Project Manager: Vilma Lingslunde
Group Strategy Director: Anneliese Rapp
Communications Strategy Director: Matt Bunting
BTS Motion graphic: Niclas Moos
ICONOCLAST
Director / Photographer: I AM HERE / Maik Schuster
Director of Photography: Maximilian Pittner
BTS Photographer / Videographer: Arthur Couvat
Executive Producer: Swantje Rummel
Producer: Beate Ehlert
Producer Stills and BTS: Veronika Fürthauer
Post-Producer: Leonidas Befeldt
Production Coordinator: Paulina Deutmeyer
Installation / Sculptural Conception: ACTE TM @ Sascha Huth, Antonia Herting, Jakob Krause, I AM HERE / Maik Schuster
VFX Supervisor: Jorge Montiel Meurer
Editor: Carlos Font Clos
BAS PRODUCTION D.O.O. I SERVICE PRODUCTION COMPANY
Service Producer - Andrej Caruso
Line Producer - Anja Opasic
ACTE TM
Art Direction: Sascha Huth
Art Direction: Jakob Krause
Art Direction: Antonia Hertig
THE MILL
VFX
Creative Director: Dave Hempstead
Head of Production: Imogen Pai
Senior Producer: Dave Moore
Producer: Sacha Aurik
Shoot Supervisor: Jorge Montiel
2D Lead Artist: Tom Freeman
2D Artist: Lucas Carracedo, Pete Attack, Anthony Jarvis
Finish Artist: Jeanette Eiternes
COLOR:
Color: The Mill
Colourist: Kristopher Smale
Color Producer: Nubia Lima
Color Assist: Rory Leighton, Catilin Donaldson
UNR
Editors: Ben Harvie and Dalma Pinter
One Hundred Berlin
Stills post production
Kraatz studio
CEO + Sound Engineer: Stefan Kraatz
Senior Producer: Maurice Kämer
