- 2 days ago
We sent our man Alex Reid to the home of Panini stickers to find out why the primitive ritual of tearing open a packet of stickers and filling an album still stirs a magical feeling in a digital age. Prepare to indulge yourself in swapsies, shinies and the search for Gary Lineker...
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00:00Panini already knows two months before they have a secret yes we have a secret and I'm
00:14being told by their own team he's a bit ugly could you please change his photo our collectors
00:22like simplicity they like Panini they don't want to be hassled with problems
00:30whether you're a young kid or a full-grown adult there's nothing like the simple thrill of tearing
00:43open a pack of stickers will I get the England shining will I get Lionel Messi Mo Salah Harry
00:50Kane when I get the last player I need to complete Brazil no I will get Armando Cooper right one down
00:58lots more to go I'm Alex Reid digital features editor at 442 this is the moment when World Cup
01:04fever becomes real to me and thousands of others around the globe the moment when you've got a
01:09packet of Panini stickers in your hand and you're ready to fill a new album with the world's best
01:13footballers what makes this simple thing so timelessly appealing they gets everyone from
01:19children in playgrounds to adults in offices got got needing for a stack of a friend swaps
01:25any one way to find out let's talk to some serious collectors who put me to shame
01:30Greg nice to meet you and you come in thank you how did you first get involved in collecting
01:48stickers it was 1979 with Panini's football 79 I was very young only five so it was all down to a kindly
01:59brother who decided that he was going to support my sticking sticker collecting habit for for football
02:0679 and it was one of their biggest albums ever now fortunately we've got the cyber playground so
02:12we've got Twitter people do it on Facebook and and some of you can actually do with your friends and
02:19and and spark up friendships with people that you never knew and you can even end up swapping with
02:25celebrities there are people like Ed Sheeran and um and Ed Bowles and Josh Widdicombe that they were
02:30all tweeting their their swaps list for uh for 2014 and I'm sure there'll be plenty doing the same in
02:362018. Have you seen a resurgence of interest in recent years? The the real resurgence in in Panini
02:43sneakers came in 2006 when the the Germany World Cup uh came around 2010 people carried it on and then
02:512014 there was there was there's never been anything like it around the world I think it was the the social
02:57media that that helped Twitter was about in in 2010 but not quite as big as it was in 2014 so a lot of
03:04people were doing their swapping there you had uh Facebook as well but it was it was something fun
03:10that the people were doing and um when you finish it is the sense of achievement while while you're
03:16doing it it's uh hoping that you can achieve finishing it but um as I say I think the most
03:21important thing is that uh people enjoy enjoy it it's not just the UK where the Panini craze strikes
03:27this is a global phenomenon the Russia 2018 album is available in over 100 countries that's more
03:35than treble the number of nations who've actually qualified for the World Cup itself
03:38in particular the continent of South America is home to some of the planet's most avid collectors
03:43I don't think any of us realized when we started this just how popular Panini stickers are across
03:51all of South America it's a huge thing in Colombia isn't it yeah massive not only in Colombia but all
03:57of America I mean it's something that we look forward to you know it's like a dream to a lot to us in
04:02South America let's say if it was 10p the moment you had 10p there's only one thought and you run to
04:07a shop and get a pack yes it's always it's always the case yeah so who was the really popular player
04:13that everyone wanted to get in 1986 what was the play definitely Maradona and I was lucky enough to
04:19get him twice and I actually kept the other one but I've kind of misplaced unfortunately so how much
04:27would like I know a Maradona in 1986 be able to command in the playground people trading up to 10
04:32stickers just just for the one Maradona sticker so yeah yeah popular very popular we have a phrase
04:39in in England when we're swapping stickers in the playground which is like got got need if you're
04:45going through the stickers you've got you've got you've got your need is there a similar thing in
04:48it's exactly the same translation la tengo la tengo la tengo no la tengo la tengo Fernando we see
04:55here that you've gone to the trouble of getting these collections bound which is amazing they do
05:00look incredible um why do they mean so much to you that you you wanted to keep them in this way
05:06I've always wanted to I mean I wanted to start something that could carry on within the family
05:12thought was always to live with my son who also is passionate about football and remember ever
05:17ever since he was little he will help me stick him and I was just screaming that you have to put
05:22it in the inside the squares you know so it was always the the idea that to pass them on
05:29okay grown-ups like myself Greg and Fernando love collecting stickers being a digital age of
05:34smartphones and hundreds of hours of live football on tv every single week why do kids still get
05:40bitten by the sticker collecting bug it's time to talk to a true professional
05:48hi alex come on hey how you doing thanks for inviting me over
05:52uh no problem so billy you're a big fan of panini like myself big fan of stickers i finished two albums
06:00pretty impressive so i know you've got like the picture of neymar up there on the wall were you
06:05particularly excited when you got him uh yeah because um he's my favorite player oh it's awesome you
06:13completed both of these albums let's uh let's sit down and take a look for him yeah and what do you
06:17enjoy about doing it what do you think is fun about it um like getting them from shops and seeing
06:23new ones or old ones that you already have and yeah and sticking them down takes quite a while if you
06:30want to get it perfectly in the box have you got the technique down then billy if you've got like the
06:35i don't know these look pretty good to me yeah but some of them my dad did that's this is how old
06:41i am that is the first album that i that i had world cup album which was italian 90. i know i
06:48didn't get anywhere near to complete it i didn't i didn't do anywhere near as well as you wow you
06:52did not complete many i know i didn't do very well at all did i look at that italy dreadful right
06:58that's how far i've got with england not too bad no you're not impressed at all are you tell me
07:03about tell me about doing it with your dad billy do the two of you just sit down and open some
07:07stickers together start sticking them in um yeah when like on weekends or after school and then i
07:14used to go out with my um grandpa to the shops and then we used to buy i used to buy two penny packets
07:22and a um it was like bubble gum so billy i'm really impressed that you've completed 2014
07:29and 2016. that's amazing work so i think it's pretty important that we get started on there we
07:37have it russia 2018. thank you okay so heavier hernandez you got it there you go come on silence
07:48no yeah i mean that's billy that is spin three times absolutely perfect yeah spot on the first
07:58sticker so billy we've given you a bit of a start here um good luck completing your album thanks high
08:04five
08:07the fun of swapping and collecting stickers crosses generations and countries but where did it all begin
08:12how did this simple collectible grow to become so iconic what's kept panini at the top of the pile
08:22there's only one way to find out head to panini headquarters in italy to talk to group publishing
08:27director and self-confessed collector fabrizio meligari how many hours how much work has gone into
08:35creating what we see before us right now well first of all because you've seen it now we are
08:40forced to kill you so well okay well the minute the winning team left the trophy and celebrate the
08:53victory well that is the minute we start working on the following world cup the company started in 1961
09:05the real founder was mr giuseppe panini who very quickly called his family to work with him this is
09:18the first panini album the stickers were very simple they were all created starting from black and white
09:27pictures which were mechanically uh colored in in pre-press and this one that i'm showing you is mr bruno
09:36bolchi this is the first uh sticker produced by panini fabrizio have there ever been any turning points
09:44in the history of panini one where it's been a success but it could have gone the other way any kind
09:51of moments where there was a real fork in the road 1970 the first world cup for the sake of being able to
09:59distribute it immediately everywhere for the first time as i said um it appeared a three a multi-language
10:09uh caption let us say that strategically that was the key point um to uh go like that
10:21all over the world and that was the turning point because uh mexico 70 uh granted to panini the possibility
10:29to be international i'm obviously i'm a huge fan and i know lots of people that are but do you ever get
10:34any sort of famous people or footballers themselves or who've revealed to you that they are collectors
10:42or were collectors in their childhoods well uh i think the the first one that comes to my mind is
10:49uh john luigi buffon uh the international football player uh of juventus who is a big fan of ours and
10:57a big collector it's the first one that uh i would think of yeah not a bad goalkeeper he's no joe harp
11:06i see what you mean in the frenzy of opening a new pack of stickers and carefully placing them in our
11:12album we don't consider how much work goes into creating something that seems so simple how do you
11:17obtain the rights from 32 different governing bodies how do panini ensure the world cup squads were as
11:23accurate as humanly possible in advance and who will help me finish my italian 90 album
11:31we headed to modena home of ferrari lamborghini balsamic vinegar and of course the place where
11:38panini stickers are actually created
11:42it's not just us collectors who have to be kept happy however there's the footballers in their
11:46federations too it's a mammoth planning task that brings its own unique challenges what i receive
11:53are incredible requests of changes with respect to pictures that we are willing to use for incredible
12:01reasons the hair are not perfect for example um it was raining so the player i'm using the picture of
12:11is wet the expression is not perfect i'm being told by their own team he's a bit ugly could you please
12:21change his photo have you ever had any situations in the past where you know you've gone to with a
12:29certain squad and it's caused any stories about players you've left in or left out i remember very
12:35well in 2014 when the german journalists arrived in modena and see the pages of the of the new album see that
12:45uh mario gomez was not inserted in the collection mario gomez well guys you are completely crazy mario gomez
12:54is one of the of the most important players one week before the world cup the coach of germany announced
13:02the final least mario mario gomez was out and the sounds of the titles in germany completely changes
13:12uh panini already knows two months before they have a secret yes we have a secret we say here in
13:19italy that football is the most important thing of the less important things yeah now it's time to head
13:27to where the action really happens the factory where thousands of stickers are printed cut mixed and
13:33packeted every single day this is the heart of our production department here we bought our stickers
13:41this is me in the factory with production manager simona spiaggia she's explaining how the whole system
13:47works and trying to ensure that i don't leave with 260 packets of stickers inside my own pockets the
13:54fifimatic packaging machines use the same original design created by umberto panini in the 1960s
14:00it can't be found anywhere outside of a panini factory however what truly amazes me is that you
14:06never get a swap or even two footballers from the same national team in the same pack of panini stickers
14:12simona explained to me this is because each sheet of stickers is mixed both before and after the
14:17individual stickers are cut to ensure a fair mix the exact science of it totally went over my simple brain
14:24but it's clearly a well-oiled machine run with razor sharp precision
14:34all of that work for this but this is something very special even though antonio allegra and giorgio
14:41aravecchia have been at panini for a combined three decades they still understand better than anyone
14:48why we still get that unmistakable buzz when we rip open a pack of stickers allora noi crediamo che panini
14:55sia così forte oggi così importante come 50 anni fa perché in realtà in una bustina di figurine c'è una serie
15:04di sensazioni e di magia che sono uniche cerco di spiegarmi meglio allora immaginiamo un ragazzino e che ha in mano
15:13una bustina di figurine è qualcosa di fisico è qualcosa di misterioso quindi io non so cosa c'è dentro devo scoprirlo
15:20e per scoprirlo l'apro e la strappo quindi un gesto quasi liberatorio l'odore delle figurine tutti noi abbiamo in testa
15:29un odore di figurine che ci dà una sensazione speciale e poi scopro se ho vinto o se ho perso se ho trovato
15:37il mio giocatore preferito e quindi magari questo mi mancava questo l'ho trovato questo posso portarlo
15:44sempre con me oppure posso incollarlo sull'album insieme agli altri eroi perché alla fine sono i miei eroi
15:51che posso collezionare noi crediamo che questo insieme di sensazioni non si trovi in uno smartphone
15:57o in un tablet ma sono tipiche di un prodotto fisico e oltretutto parliamo in questo caso di calcio della
16:03world cup e quindi di un qualcosa che è comunque un fenomeno di massa un fenomeno che si può condividere
16:09anche a livello mondiale e questo è il motivo per cui secondo noi oggi le figurine panini sono più vive che mai
16:16the real magic of panini is to keep simple a product that actually is very difficult to
16:22create it's difficult to make something that in the end is so simple so wonderfully easy yes when
16:29the world behind is difficult you need to keep simple because our collectors like simplicity they
16:37like panini they don't want to be hassled with problems now we come to the heart of the matter
16:43this entire trip to italy is just an excuse for me to try and finish my italian 90 album
16:48and stop nine-year-old kids like billy laughing at me in the street it's time to do what every
16:54england midfielder was looking to do when they had the ball during the 1990 world cup
16:59find gary lineker so how far does your archive of stickers actually go back here we start our
17:06availability from 1964 1965 we have special shuttles we call them shuttles because they are automatic
17:15machines that can contain millions really millions of stickers so you have helped me today by finding
17:24me this is very precious i was actually very excited when you showed this to me that is an actual
17:30gary lineker sticker all the stickers that you have to find at panini are original so our company never
17:38reprints stickers there we may be 28 years late but links is finally in there alongside his strike
17:44partner peter beardsley yet while the timeless joy of panini is a huge part of its appeal the company
17:50still needs to change with the times so understandably it's embracing new media from games to digital
17:56swapping as a new media we need to give some value added to this way of naturally collecting
18:07and for example we use the technique such as augmented reality rather than other techniques
18:17to give additional content to the traditional stickers we created an app called panini collectors
18:25app that is being completely re-engineered for this world cup where kids can track the completion of
18:33their collection scanning the stickers creating the swapping list swap swap these lists online on social
18:44networks and have fun because there will be games based on the stickers collected from the uk to italy to
18:51south america via the unlikely pairing of famous collectors such as ed sheeran and jean luigi buffon
18:58it's clear the joy of collecting stickers has a universal appeal that crosses boundaries to me
19:03it's a bit like vinyl records something that should belong to another era but its vintage appeal actually
19:08means it's becoming more popular than ever that's why i think people will always be collecting panini
19:13now good luck completing your own russia 2018 album go go go need
19:21yes
19:29don't you
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