Heidi meets her younger twin!

s.Oliver and Jung von Matt launch new campaign featuring supermodel Heidi Klum and her younger self

What happens when an icon encounters her own past?

For s.Oliver’s new brand campaign, the Jung von Matt BEAUTY COLLECTIVE has staged a unique double casting featuring Heidi Klum alongside her younger self. Bergisch Gladbach meets Beverly Hills; an up-and-coming model meets a global superstar; personal history meets brand heritage, resulting in a campaign that blends fashion, pop culture and new technology.

Heidi Klum’s dual role is more than just a surprising image. The career of the s.Oliver brand ambassador and supermodel embodies, like few others, the idea behind ‘CASUAL SINCE FOREVER’: constantly reinventing oneself without losing one’s identity, casual style and down-to-earth nature. This is precisely where the connection to s.Oliver lies. Over the decades, the brand has continued to evolve without abandoning the ‘casual spirit’ that still defines it today. This parallel makes the casting the strategic core of the campaign.

Brand heritage with a new face

The creative challenge was to translate this connection into an idea that was as simple as it was surprising. Rather than recounting the brand’s heritage retrospectively, the campaign brings the past and present together in a single image. AI face-swap technology makes the extraordinary encounter between two Heidis possible. The result is an image that makes the connection between the face of the brand and the brand itself immediately visible.

Beyond the current campaign, the idea is designed for the long term: it creates a communications framework that can be further developed through different stories, products and activations. In this way, s.Oliver’s positioning as a 100% casual brand is firmly anchored in its communications for the long term, beyond individual campaign moments.

“With this campaign, we are further sharpening our positioning as a 100% casual brand. The story demonstrates in an emotional way that, while much changes, the true casual spirit remains. Together with Heidi Klum, we are interpreting precisely this idea in a surprising and previously unseen way,” says Johannes Rellecke, Co-CEO of the S.OLIVER GROUP.

More than just a face swap

“Sometimes the strongest ideas are the simplest: Heidi Klum meets Heidi Klum. We’re bringing together defining phases in the life of one of Germany’s greatest pop culture and fashion icons and using her story to retell the s.Oliver story as well. AI makes this encounter possible, but for us it remains a means to an end. The key is to use it in a way that makes the creative idea even stronger. In this way, brand heritage becomes not a nostalgic look back, but contemporary storytelling,” says Nicole Grözinger, Creative Director at Jung von Matt NECKAR and Creative Lead at Jung von Matt BEAUTY COLLECTIVE.

The creative development of the campaign was handled by the Jung von Matt BEAUTY COLLECTIVE at the Jung von Matt NECKAR office, which also used AI to bring to life the still images shot by Rankin. For the technical production of the film, the team collaborated with Tempo, while Alex Feil took charge of the direction and creative AI direction.

With “CASUAL SINCE FOREVER”, Jung von Matt and s.Oliver have created a communications platform that not only preserves the brand’s heritage but also reinterprets it in a modern way. At the heart of the campaign is a brand film that extends across all relevant touchpoints and is accompanied by a comprehensive international activation. The campaign will roll out internationally.

Source: Jung von Matt

  AI, Campaign, Heidi Klum, Jung von Matt, Jung von Matt BEAUTY COLLECTIVE, Marketing, s.Oliver