unclaimed baggage
An Integrated Marketing Case Study
the assignment
After going from one brand to the next, switching industries, and still not finding the right fit for my campaign for my summer 2025 in grad school, I finally found the most niche, one-of-a-kind company to work with for my creative strategy and execution class.
When scouring the internet for my IMC 515-Creative Strategy class to find the perfect brand for my travel campaign ideas, this video popped up out of nowhere on a Google search for “Best Travel and Lifestyle ads,” and I was completely captured by the idea of working with this brand.
the client
I present Unclaimed Baggage. This company is truly one of a kind; it’s America’s only retailer for unclaimed luggage (and their contents) from airports. Looking into this brand, there’s a lot of character here and a ton of untold stories scratching at the door waiting to be let out.
Consider the items you pack before embarking on a business trip, a wedding weekend, a girls’ trip, or a solo getaway… Now, imagine losing that bag, only to have its contents sold in Scottsboro, Alabama.
why unclaimed baggage?
This company is so different from anything else I’ve seen, and they’re doing a lot of good things in the world, too, which I’m always a big fan of. According to their website, they donate one item for every item they sell on average. Unclaimed Baggage donates clothing to homeless shelters and local thrift stores that create employment opportunities in Alabama (Reclaimed for good: Unclaimed baggage: A purpose for every bag, n.d.). They also donate eyeglasses, wheelchairs, luggage, and medical supplies across the country and the globe (Reclaimed for good: Unclaimed baggage: A purpose for every bag, n.d.).
I wanted to build brand awareness for this unique retail company, which offers a diverse range of items, including beautiful, unusual, luxury, random, everyday-use, well-loved, and rare items.
critical analysis
The problem I would like to help them solve is their lack of brand awareness and engagement. They have over 100k followers on Instagram, but the majority of their videos are sitting under 10k views and 100 likes. Their TikTok, which has a little less popularity with 39k followers, has accumulated only 216k likes across all their videos. This suggests that they have the potential to expand into social media marketing on a larger scale with their large following, but they simply need direction and some fresh ideas to boost their engagement and impressions.
Their brand lacks a voice, and they’d benefit from a clear brand personality. Whether it's endearing, passionate, or emotional– since they are such local philanthropists– or it's chaotic marketing (like Duolingo) that accompanies the random things they find in lost luggage, they need their brand to pick a lane and stick with it. From a consumer perspective, their brand appears to be trying to be humorous on TikTok, but they’re not keeping up with the trends effectively. On Instagram, it feels like half of their feed showcases the luxury items they offer, a quarter of it tries to be trendy and is very graphic-heavy, and the other bits attempt to execute the influencer-chatty-get-ready-with-me-girl vibe but lack the buy-in needed for higher engagement. They would benefit from a social media strategy, potential influencer marketing or celebrity endorsements, events, and a bigger/national philanthropic partner.
competition
This recent campaign by Goodwill does a great job of illustrating the lifespan of consumer products, such as a child’s tea set, traveling from a new teenager who has outgrown her childhood toys, to the local Goodwill store, to a little girl excited to play with her new tea set. The in-between shows the sales training and new skills learned from the tea set’s journey. It’s a great way to add value to objects that one person might view as old, useless, or uninteresting, by showing that those items are the beginning of something new for someone else. The ad is professionally done, it stays on-brand and on-message, and it’s heartfelt. It’s a great embodiment of Goodwill’s brand, which offers professional services and learning opportunities for individuals seeking to discover their true potential through the proceeds earned from reselling household donations.
