Share your Fire: Allianz and Sir Mary launch upcycling collection

Allianz Suisse launches the "Share Your Fire" campaign together with Sir Mary. In cooperation with fashion designer Julia Seemann, Olympic champion Iouri Podladtchikov and Schweizer Sporthilfe, worn jerseys from over 100 top Swiss athletes - including Roger Federer, Nicola Spirig and Kariem Hussein - were collected and turned into new designer shirts. Sports fans from Switzerland can win these until September 5, 2021.

With this campaign, Allianz is making the first communicative impact on its global partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Roger Federer, Giulia Steingruber, Kariem Hussein, Nino Schurter, Dominique Gisin, Roman Josi, Nicola Spirig, Didier Défago, Andri Ragettli and Viktor Röthlin are just a few of the 110 top Swiss athletes who have donated their jerseys to "Share your Fire" - and whose fire Allianz now shares with Switzerland in the form of exclusive, handmade designer shirts.

"We are proud to be able to give so many people a piece of their sporting role models. The 'Share your Fire' shirts should inspire their wearers to also fight for their own dreams and goals in a persistent, friendly and fair way," says Thomas Wegmann, Head of Market Management at Allianz. More than 150 meaningful jerseys, tops, training shirts, pants, bodysuits and bibs have gone into the making of the new unique items. They were collected over weeks, cut into many pieces and finally made into 100 men's and women's shirts in four different cuts.

An important incentive for the athletes: For each of them, 500 Swiss francs were donated by Allianz to the Swiss Sports Aid's promotion of young talent. The design and hand production of the unique items was undertaken by the Swiss fashion designer Julia Seemann, who is particularly enthusiastic about the project because of the upcycling idea and the diverse stories behind the jerseys. She was assisted throughout the process by Olympic champion and ex-snowboard pro Iouri Podladtchikov, who is studying photography in New York after finishing his sports career in 2019.

For "Share your Fire," Podlatchikov was able to contribute his expertise as an athlete as well as his passion for his new profession: He is responsible for the campaign images as a photographer. In addition, he also donated a piece of memorabilia - his last competition shirt - and cut it up himself. "I think it's great that the fighting spirit that went into it can now live on in other people," says Podlatchikov.

The campaign is promoted in a 50-second spot featuring bladerunner Abassia Rahmani, hurdler Kariem Hussein and ex-professional soccer player Stephan Lichtsteiner. In addition, social media clips with Iouri and Julia provide insights into the process of creating the shirts. An extensive PR strategy accompanies the measures. From July to September, the unique shirts will be staggered every two weeks on the campaign website. Shareyourfire.ch raffled. On the website, you can find out which athletes are wearing each unique item. You can also learn more about the background of the donated garments.

"We are delighted that with the "Share your Fire" collection for Allianz, we have once again created not a classic advertisement, but a product that inspires people and lasts," said Daniel Zuberbühler, Founder and Managing Partner at Sir Mary.

Responsible at Allianz: Thomas Wegmann, Thomas Jost, Marcel Wolfgramm, Rahel Habersaat, Simone Schmitt, Corina Brunner, Arjan von Doesburg, Sebastian Adam. Responsible at Sir Mary: Florian Beck, Andi Portmann, Adrian Merz, Katrin Espelage, Thomas Berger, Jessica do Amparo, Julia Fischhaber, Naemi Sauter, Maurice Ziegler, Barbara Kallenberg, Lukas Wietlisbach, Fabian Habisreutinger, Vanessa Habisreutinger, Katharina Günther, Eticus Rozas, Alexia Siegwart, Timon Oberholzer, Nicolas Hostettler, Daniel Zuberbühler. Responsible at Shining Pictures (film production): Leonardo Sanfilippo, Alessandra Dolci, Gabi Benz (Producer), Maximilian Speidel (Director), Tobias Kubli (DoP), Bela Adami (Edit), Jürgen Kulka (Grading). Production: Stereotyp (music production activation film), UKO (sound studio); Aaron Graf, Hero Fähndrich (edit content films), Simon Hardegger (grading content films), Bardo Eicher (sound mix content films). Campaign photos: Iouri Podladtchikov. Landing page: Sugo.digital. Shirt production: Julia Seemann, Iouri Podladtchikov. Product shots: Image factory.

INTERVIEW

"It was the most elaborate action for all of us that we have ever undertaken"

Thomas Wegmann, Head of Market Management and Member of the Executive Board at Allianz, talks to Werbewoche.ch about the motivations as well as the challenges of the campaign, and what he hopes to achieve with the "Share Your Fire" campaign.

Werbewoche.ch: Thomas Wegmann, "Share Your Fire" is once again a creative, unconventional campaign by Allianz. Could you tell us how the idea - together with Sir Mary - came about?

Brief context: The Allianz Group has decided to enter into a global partnership with the International Olympic Committee IOC, covering the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. For us in Switzerland, this opens up new communications opportunities. But at the same time, it is also a challenge to activate the topic of the Olympics in a credible way while remaining very close to the athletes and us "normal" people.

At Allianz, we have already had very good experiences with courageous, unconventional actions. For example, with our Wedding Chapel at Pride, a pop-up chapel where same-sex couples symbolically said "I do" in front of the first gay marriage minister flown in from Las Vegas. (Werbewoche.ch reported). Or with the Formula E safety car, in which the official safety car driver chauffeured guests through Zurich as an Uber.

Sir Mary responded very quickly to our brief to develop an equally creative approach with exciting suggestions. In the Corona days, we quickly dismissed the idea of an energy drink with a drop of top athletes' sweat, but just as quickly recognized the upcycling shirt made from our top athletes' jerseys as an idea with great potential and pursued it further.

How long did the process take from the idea to the "finished product"?  

The process took a total of around half a year. Not that long when you consider how many hurdles had to be overcome along the way. For all of us, it was the most elaborate action we have ever undertaken. From putting together the interdisciplinary team, collecting the top athletes' jerseys, shirt design, manual production, spots and campaign pages, to the demanding negotiations with the IOC.

What do you think is the most important message of the "Share Your Fire" campaign?

"Share Your Fire" - take some of the fire of our top Swiss athletes with you, be brave, fight, make a difference yourself, and share your own personal fire with others. In the spirit of our brand message "Courage means making".

How difficult was it to get the athletes, some of whom are enormously popular, to provide you with original jerseys?

Our campaign does not have a purely commercial purpose, but supports Swiss Sports Aid, with whom we have worked closely. We were thrilled that over 100 of our top Swiss athletes donated their jerseys to us and thus made a contribution to supporting up-and-coming Swiss athletes.

What do you think: Will the designer shirts become collector's items after the raffle or do you want the winners to be in top form themselves?

I would be very happy if the shirts would not disappear in the drawers, but would continue to carry the fire outside on the street, while jogging in the forest or in the gym. For this purpose, they have been sewn together by our designers with great care and dedication from over 2,500 individual pieces to 100 exclusive shirts.