• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, May 10, 2011

Europeans may love their lightweight luggage, but the category is still somewhat unknown in the U.S. So Delsey Luggage is breaking its first new ads in three years, with a whimsical campaign for luxury shoppers themed "Travel Light."

The idea is to introduce Delsey as both lightweight and durable -- unlike its competitors, which sacrifice one or the other, Bill Harper, creative director at MossWarner, the San Juan Capistrano, Calif.-based agency that created the campaign, tells Marketing Daily.

"This is a company with a visibility problem, not a product problem," he says. "Although it's widely known in Europe, it's not here, and the whole shift to lightweight luggage -- which started about five or six years ago in Europe -- is late to come here. And while other companies make light bags, too, they do it by stripping down the luggage. There's a real quality difference."

Delsey bags come with a 15-year warranty, he says, and the company's return rate is quite low.

Delsey is a French brand, owned by Pelham Leather Goods, Ltd., and has its American headquarters in Hanover, Md. In the U.S., its main competitors are Samsonite, American Tourister and Ricardo.

Visuals are intended to appeal to a luxury shopper who's grown tired of being practical, and a little fed up with thrifty travel. In one, a bellhop juggles a huge number of Delsey suitcases for a high-society type; in another, it's an airport baggage handler. The fantasy message? Even if the bags don't weigh very much, the people who buy Delsey don't tote their own luggage anyway.

Print ads, running in women's magazines, including Elle and such travel publications as Conde Nast Traveler, explain: "Heavier bags are not stronger or better. They're just heavier." Each ad is horizontal in format and runs vertically, rotated 90 degrees.

"Travel has become increasingly difficult, and we wanted to make the ads a little playful," he says. "It's not rocket science -- we're selling lightweight bags, so we wanted the message to be lightweight, too."