Cult luggage brand Béis’s core demographic is women ages 24-35. But over the last year, the brand has been looking for ways to increase its pull with male customers, according to Liz Money, the brand’s svp of brand and creative.
Around six months ago, Money saw a TikTok from influencer Robyn DelMonte, better known as Girlbosstown, where DelMonte pitched an idea for a Father’s Day campaign she would do if she worked for Béis, which was founded by actress Shay Mitchell in 2018. DelMonte bills herself as “the internet’s agent” and also works as a creative consultant for brands. The idea centered on the “Airport Dad” — the kind of man who shows up several hours early for a flight, boarding pass already printed and itinerary in hand. Money loved the idea and reached out to DelMonte, bringing her in to co-lead the production of the campaign.
The Father’s Day campaign launched on June 3 across Béis’s social media channels, with DelMonte rolling out behind-the-scenes posts on her own channels — she has nearly 700,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 60,000 on Instagram. The campaign also features other influencers like menswear creator Michael Justin, who has more than 1 million followers on TikTok, and is being featured on the brand’s website homepage. For Béis, the campaign marks the first time it has worked with an outside party on a creative campaign. And, in general, it highlights the fact that brands are becoming more willing to work directly with influencers on content creation.
“Having an external consultant come in and give us their ideas was new for us,” Money said . “But as a brand with a lot of new products all the time, it’s important that we find new strategies to bring attention to our core product. It’s always a challenge getting consumers excited about bread and butter products.”
Showcased in the campaign are pieces from Beis’s core travel luggage line. Béis also does regular drops of products from categories including totes, belt bags and Dopp kits.
DelMonte said getting to work with a brand she admires was one of her long-term goals and something she hopes to do more of in the future.
“It reassures me and my followers of the power of sharing your ideas online and hopefully pioneers a new way for brands to work with creators,” she said.
The Airport Dad campaign isn’t the only thing Béis has recently done to bring attention to its core products. In late April, Béis hosted a pop-up focused on its core products at the country music festival Stagecoach. Before that, it hosted the Béis Wash, a two-day event where customers could bring their Béis bags into the brand’s Melrose Avenue store in New York City for a free cleaning.
“I love to find ways to amplify the products we already have on a mass level and show our customers that we appreciate their loyalty,” Money said.
Béis has also become more collaborative. In addition to working with DelMonte, and partnering with Scrub Daddy and Branch Basics for Béis Wash, it has recently launched a partnership with Anthropologie and a collection with model Elsa Hosk and has more product collaborations planned for later this year. Béis surpassed $200 million in revenue last year, marking a 180% year-over-year increase.
