Skybags: Now Featuring more Features

The brand has come up with a variety of digital videos showcasing its key features.

Skybags, the travel bags vertical of VIP Industries, which has recently forayed in the backpacks category, has found yet another way to engage with its digital-savvy youth. It has launched an unconventional way to highlight the distinguishing features of its backpacks range.

The brand has come up with a variety of digital videos that have proved to be conversation starters. Showcasing Skybags backpacks key features - waterproof rain covers, 12 month worldwide warranty and strong built-to-last- straps - Skybags has created three hilarious videos that have proved to be an instant connect with the youth.

Conceptualized and executed by 22feet Tribal Worldwide, each video personifies each feature through real-life stories. For example, to highlight Skybags' range of waterproof rain covers, the ad depicts how a waterproof rain cover comes in handy when outsmarting devious siblings.

'Kissa Kursi Ka' highlights the product's 'built-to-last' straps. A man dressed as a king is engaged in a fight over a backpack, evidently for a chair (throne) in the background, with another in a British soldier's uniform. The second film, 'Wish for a Perfect Boyfriend', highlights the 12-month worldwide warranty. The videos were published on July 28 and 29 and have, so far, garnered more than one lakh views on YouTube.

Speaking about the campaign, Sudip Ghose, vice president, marketing, VIP Industries says, "Digital, today, is more engaging than traditional medium. Therefore, the content that goes up on the digital platform needs to be innovative to garner visibility and create the desired brand recall. With this campaign, we are reinforcing our core brand identity through fun videos affirming the trendiness and interesting features of the product."

VIP entered the backpack category earlier this year, by extending its Skybags portfolio. To mark its foray into the segment, the company, in April 2014, had launched a campaign called 'Back is the new front', that positions a so-called utility product as something you can easily make a style statement with. The campaign is based on the premise that in today's India, baggage - not the emotional kind - is becoming a reflection of its owners' personality.

"A young and fun brand like Skybags backpacks warrants a tongue-in-cheek story. The brief was simple and straightforward and we tried three different treatments to bring it out beautifully," says Rochelle Noronha, business development manager, 22feet Tribal Worldwide.

The Skybags backpack range is primarily targeted at the urban youth between 16 and 25. While continuing with its 'tough luggage' imagery, the brand is trying to offer something cool and stylish for the youth, this time around. The prices range from Rs 1,090 to Rs 2,600.

In India, the backpack and duffel bags segments are growing faster than the hardtop segment, as Indian consumers increasingly plan shorter, 'budget trips' within the country.