Why fans stick with Panini
What can fans expect from the new collection?
It will be a celebration of all things Scotland, with a different feel to our usual tournament collections. Typically, they’d have a formulaic approach, players’ head and shoulders, all lined up perfectly, but the Scotland one is a more in-depth guide to each player, with stats and lots of nice photography.
We’re hugely excited by the launch. The response we’ve had since announcing it has blown us away. There’s huge enthusiasm for it, especially in these trying times where there’s not a lot of fun to be had.
Why has the popularity of sticker books has endured?
It’s still a really fun thing for kids to do. It’s often one of the first ways they’re exposed to football and learn about clubs and players, I found that with my son during the 2018 World Cup, and I remember the Italia ’90 collection from my youth. We get kids who are young enough to enjoy engaging with it before they become focused on other things such as video games.
Also, we have a large and enthusiastic nostalgic heritage consumer base; dads, lads, and grandads, who have collected over the years and have great memories of the brand, swapping in the playground, going to the shop and saving their pocket money. It’s a nice thing for people to remember and share with their own kids, or do it for themselves.
How big a part is swapping?
We have active communities online who collect and swap through groups. It’s something that brings people together.
Even the most hard-nosed businessman that I’ve walked into an office with will ask if I can get them the one they’re missing!
It’s a positive thing for kids, swapping, learning about the value of things, with statistics and reading in the book. We often find a kid or house will have an album and different people will be buying packs and contributing to it in the quest to complete it.
It’s not really ever just one person trying to fill a book, and that’s what makes our brand pretty unique.
How has Panini kept up with changes in technology?
Fundamentally, it’s still the same as it was. The real joy of completing a page or getting that sticker lined up exactly right or finding your favourite player, that’s all very much in the physical world.
There’s nothing like ripping a packet open and finding the player you’re looking for, or the shiny stickers! I’m not sure if you could ever replicate that virtually. But we have embraced the digital world, most of our collections have virtual versions which allow collectors to do it online.
Are there certain stickers that are more sought-after?
The rumours of us only producing some shiny stickers in lower volumes or in certain parts of the country are always fun for us to read, but it’s not the case.
We produce our stickers in equal volumes. I think every town or school has a story of the sticker that nobody could find, or the one that seemed to turn up over and over again.
Over the years, some of the stickers from collections we’ve done have increased in value.
Some of the stickers from Mexico ’70, our first World Cup collection, are selling on online auctions for fairly significant sums, as are completed mint condition collections.
How widespread is sticker collecting?
The numbers are huge. For a World Cup collection, it’ll be in more than 160 countries. The Euro collection will be available in every country in Europe and beyond, it’ll be very much a cross-continent thing with people collecting all over.
The same factory that was manufacturing the stickers in the ’70s is still the one that produces the collection. It’s in Modena in Italy, founded by the Panini brothers back in the ’60s.
It’s a fantastic place to go to, a footballing Mecca where you can go in and feel the history of the place, the machines built by the Panini brothers whirring away.