Calpak’s new marketing strategy goes beyond millennials

Calpak’s new marketing strategy goes beyond millennials

With funky patterns and pastel colors, much of the direct-to-consumer luggage space focuses on millennials and Gen Z. Calpak, though, is taking a different approach with its marketing.

In the past, Calpak’s social posts primarily showed younger shoppers or influencers using its products at school, on the beach, at the pickleball court and at the gym. Going forward, the brand is funneling ad dollars into showing people of all ages in its campaigns and marketing materials.

While most of Calpak’s customers are millennials, they’re increasingly looking to buy for grandparents, parents, kids and friends, and Calpak wants to reflect that need, said Calpak’s vp of marketing, Jeannie Shin. This shift in strategy also comes as the brand looks to build awareness more broadly and position itself as a brand for all generations and genders.

“Our core demo is 25 to 35 — but how do you speak to a 25 to 35 year old?” Shin said. “It’s not just about speaking to them about what they want and what’s just for them.” Instead, Calpak’s millennial customers tend to look for products for “everybody around them,” she said.

Calpak’s newest ad campaign, which debuts this week, illustrates how people of all ages can use Calpak products. It features Aki and Koichi, a fashionable influencer couple in their 70s who travel the world and make “outfit-of-the-day” videos for their 1.2 million Instagram followers.

The campaign, which is now live, is on multiple channels, including social platforms like Instagram, Calpak’s website and its emails. Notably, unlike many past campaigns, the new ads are featured in Calpak’s first permanent brick-and-mortar store, which opened in November 2024.

In line with its mission to raise awareness more broadly, Calpak judges the success of its campaign on top-of-the-funnel metrics such as social media impressions and engagement rates. The brand also hopes to drive sales of its new Terra luggage, which Aki and Koichi use in the ads.

“Calpak’s decision here makes a lot of sense on a few levels,” said Sarah Engel, president of marketing agency January Digital, “both to speak to an older group of consumers with incredible spending power… as well as [to] try something new and connect with and inspire all generations.”

Among travel companies, Calpak is unusual in featuring older generations in ad campaigns. Older generations are responsible for half of the spending in the U.S., and if Americans age 50 and older were their own country, they’d be the third-largest economy in the world, per AARP data. And yet, only 5% of marketing budgets go toward marketing to this group.

What’s more, older consumers travel more often than younger consumers — largely because they have the disposable income to do so. By not featuring them in campaigns or catering to them, travel brands are leaving a “gap in the market,” Polly Wong, president of the marketing agency Belardi Wong, told Modern Retail.

In line with its updated ad strategy, Calpak is increasingly developing products for all ages. For instance, in February 2024, it launched baby gear via a collection of diaper totes, stroller caddies and changing pad clutches. It will continue this line of thinking in 2025, Shin said.

“We have a lot of collections that are expanding the age group of who could utilize our products,” she said.

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