"What a representative creation, don't you think?" Look at that letter P... It looks elastic, like rubber," these conversations kicked off Pirelli's 150th anniversary celebration on the stage of the Piccolo Theater in Milan, Italy. The performance combines testimony, sound and image to tell a historical story that began on January 28, 1872, with industry, cultural heritage, technology and passion.
The event presented the story of Pirelli's three centuries and what sets it apart most, including the company's international layout, factory, relationship with culture and artists, creativity in the field of communication, engagement in sports and motorsport and the relentless pursuit of innovation and cutting-edge technology.
The Pirelli 150th Anniversary was first marked by the Pirelli Annual Calendar press conference last November, when bryan Adams was screened, and then appeared in the Monte Carlo Rally, finishing the first lap of the car, it also appeared on the number of athletes participating in the Ski World Cup in Cortina, and on the San Siro Stadium in Inter Milan against Venice. The Pirelli 150th Anniversary Logo will be used throughout the year for all Pirelli sponsored projects.
Ahead of the event at the Piccolo Theater in Milan, Italy, a round of global countdown began on January 24 from Rio de Janeiro. The 180-meter-high Citi Tower was then lit up in Shanghai with Pirelli signs and blessings, appeared in 3D video on the Nastarc Building in New York's Times Square, and then went to the large screen at the Palazzo Venezia between Mercanti Avenue and Piazza Corducio in Milan. The video shows a 3D tire that goes down the slope and stops before flying off the screen, perfectly presenting Pirelli's slogan "Power Control Sends and Receives Freely", and the 3D video ends with the Pirelli 150th Anniversary logo and good wishes.
On the stage of the Piccolo Theater in Milan, Italy, a scene consisting of five large screens, four actors begin their narrative from the history of Pirelli. Images, videos, photographs and actors' voices alternate from time to time, and they relive different moments for Pirelli with Ferruccio de Bortoli, Paulo Mielli, Alberto Pirelli Jr. and Marco Tronketty Provira. The dialogue revolves around Leopoldo Pirelli and his father Alberto, supplemented by memories of his son, and Leopoldo's role in the company's contribution to the modernization and industrialization of the country, his successes and the inevitable difficulties encountered along the way.
Pirelli's journey began on 28 January 1872, when Giovanni Battista Pirelli, at the age of 23, focused on a new material– rubber. At first, the company produced the insulators needed for telegraphs and cables, linking together Italy's emerging fringes. It has since grown rapidly around the world and produced everyday items (covering swim caps, toys and raincoats, among others), as well as horse-drawn carriage and bicycle tires to keep up with the trend of mobility. From the day of its birth, Pirelli has focused on innovation, and the products it manufactures have become symbols of Italian development. Pirelli's modern skyscraper (Il Pirellone) was once the symbol of Milan, and Pirelli's headquarters were also located here in the 1960s. Later, Pirelli moved its headquarters to an area called Bicocca in the north of Milan, which has now developed into a true corporate campus. Pirelli has also had difficulties, with mergers with Dunlop and Continental ending in failure in the 90s, and plans to integrate telecommunications networks and content through Telecom Italia from the early 2000s, but ultimately failing due to external interference. The turnaround began with the core business, followed by Pirelli's focus on tyres.
Pirelli will always be international. Born in Milan, it quickly became a multinational conglomerate, seen as a local business in countries such as the UK, Brazil and the US. This approach has long been revealed in the travels of Pirelli's founders and their sons Alberto and Piero. Today, Pirelli's plants in 12 countries around the world have bright production floors, safety and sustainability. The working environment is friendly to enthusiastic employees and constantly encourages the development of Industry 4.0, such as simulators, artificial intelligence and robots including Pirelli's self-developed Modular Integrated Automated Production System for Tires (MIRS).
Pirelli continues to practice through innovative languages and tools such as Pirelli Magazine, the Pirelli Annual Calendar, the Pirelli Hangar Bicocca Center for Contemporary Art, publications and exhibitions of the Pirelli Foundation, products from "Pirelli Design", World magazines and annual reports by artists and writers. Pirelli is an innovative and communicative company with the ability to go beyond inherent memory and enable industry to engage in dialogue with contemporary art, sports, photography and music.
The passion that makes Pirelli's heart beat faster: motors. As rally enthusiast Alberto Pirelli Jr. explains, it's a technology-based field, and Pirelli has been involved in car rally since the 1970s and now participates in more than 350 motorsport races. The 1907 Beijing-Paris Rally was particularly memorable, when Prince Scipione Borghese raced in an Itala car fitted with Pirelli tyres for a distance of 17,000 kilometres, reaching the finish line 20 days ahead of second place. The event was a huge success, combining mobility, innovation and exciting events and transforming the event into an open-air laboratory for tyre development, including GT events, rally, superbike championships and the F1 World Championships. Stefano Domenicalli, head of the F1 World Championship, the world's highest level of motorsport in the world, is involved in the discussion of motorsport on the eve of a major change: with the introduction of 18-inch racing tires, the importance of Pirelli in the race will become even more prominent. For Pirelli, investment in sports is not limited to engine motorsport, but also includes football, cycling, winter sports and sailing events.
Many of the 6,700 patents Pirelli has received in 150 years have been signed by engineers from Emanueli, who often says "look deep, understand" to discover new solutions. Today, more than 2,000 employees working in Pirelli's vital R&D department remember Emmanuel's "lesson". Pirelli's cooperation projects with more than 50 leading universities are also crucial for business development, as Filuccio Nesta explained to Illalia Damico, the partnership between Pirelli and politecnico di Milano is based on constant exchange and mutual inspiration.
Today, the "heirs of Emmanuel" are already involved in the management of accelerated innovation, for example in the field of electric vehicles, Pirelli has launched electrification technology ELECT, which provides solutions to cope with different body weights, acceleration and emissions compared to conventional cars. There are also new connected car products, such as cyber tires with sensors, that provide real-time information to drivers. Pirelli continues to go above and beyond on the path of continuous innovation. Thanks to the continuous development of technology, virtualization has accelerated the time for research and development. These tires are safe, high-performance and sustainable products developed using digital technologies to create virtual tires. Its sustainability is supported by renewable materials, and with this in mind, Pirelli produced the world's first FSC forest-certified tire from natural rubber, supporting its 100% sustainable supply chain.