• by Fern Siegel , April 21, 2022

Samsonite has partnered with agency Iris Worldwide, part of Cheil Network, to produce a sustainability-focused creative campaign that dovetails with Earth Day, April 22.

The campaign highlights sustainable stories in various cities. Each centers on the packing and unpacking decisions a traveler makes. From an individual who avoids cars in order to stay fit to a coffee lover who seeks out local-sourced cuisine, all share one common element: Samsonite is their luggage brand of choice for eco-friendly traveling.

The campaign creative is running across Samsonite’s owned-and-operated channels — including the site, organic social and in the windows of retail stores across the U.S. and Canada. The brand has paid social-media placements and a large-scale OOH buy in Times Square.

It will run in North America through May 31.

As part of its sustainability principles, Samsonite showcases its proprietary Recyclex material in its pinnacle collections — a technology that uses post-industrial recycled materials crafted to be durable, flexible and more environmentally sustainable.

A new luggage line — its eco-friendly Maxsum Eco collection — has a hard-side polypropylene shell made of 483 recycled yogurt cups, creating a lightweight, yet impact-resistant case.

Since 2018, Samsonite has launched more than 50 products using Recyclex fabric, made from 100% recycled PET (rPET) bottles, recycling approximately 52 million 500ml PET bottles and resulting in longer-lasting luggage.

“Samsonite’s mission is to help travelers journey further, with ever-lighter and stronger products,” said Ezequiel (Zeke) Hart, global head of Sustainability for Samsonite. “In our pursuit of sustainability leadership, we recognize the most sustainable product is one that lasts. It’s straightforward: a product that lasts 20 years, for example, will have one-quarter of the impact over that period relative to four products that each last just five years before needing to be replaced.”

Elizabeth Hall, managing director, Iris, added: “Everything about this campaign, from the shoot strategy to the themes, aligns with our own production-related sustainability goals. Through this campaign, we’ve successfully created a dialogue with Samsonite’s consumers, showcasing the ways in which they could thoughtfully and proactively reduce their footprint on the journeys they choose to make, as opposed to dissuading them from traveling at all.”

Samsonite’s approach to sustainability is also reflected in its Luggage Trade-in program, running through April 30. Owners can get a 40% discount on two types of luggage — ENOW and ASPERO — when they trade-in older models. Each piece of former luggage earns a $10 donation to the World Wide Fund for Nature-Singapore.